
Pogačar and Van der Poel were leading the race with some 40 kilometres to go when Pogacar crashed hard on a right hand curve, suffering injuries to his left wrist while he was also delayed when he needed a replacement bike as a front wheel puncture added to his woes.
Pogacar launched a furious chase to catch Van der Poel, but the Dutchman kept his cool in the last decisive phase despite having having a bidon flung at his face and suffering a late puncture of his own on the Carrefour d’Arbre forcing him to change bikes.
Van der Poel thus became the eighth rider in Roubaix history to win the Hell of the North three times. At the same time he is the first since Francesco Moser in 1980 to take three editions in a row.
Pogacar finished second 1:20 behind Van der Poel, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) taking third by outsprinting Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
Pogacar, however, still became the first Tour champion since Eddy Merckx in 1975 to end up on the Paris-Roubaix podium.
But then I just had to go for it and it was still quite far from the finish, it was really hard especially with the last two sectors with the headwind. I was really struggling but I’m happy to make it to the finish line.”
In relation to Pogacar’s crash, he said, “the speed was superhigh and I think he misjudged the turn a bit. I was just quick enough to save it, and then I don’t know what happened afterwards, because I had quite a big gap but I had to go for it. That’s part of racing.”
Van der Poel suffered a puncture “and I didn’t know the time gap, because my radio didn’t work, so I couldn’t ask for it or say I had a flat tyre. It took a while til the car was there but it all worked out in the end.”
After losing the Tour of Flanders to Pogacar and suffering from illness leading up to the race, Van der Poel said: “I’m just happy that I could find my good legs again. But we all know what an incredible champion Tadej is, what he did here in his first Roubaix- it doesn’t surprise me but it’s also not normal.”
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