Sunday 07 April 2024 at 17h16

He was the arch-favorite even before the start, he was the outgoing winner, he was the one looking for the Tour of Flanders - Paris-Roubaix double, and it was Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who won Paris-Roubaix 2024, the 121st edition of the race!

Having broken away from his group with around 60 kilometers to go, van der Poel completed the last 1h30 of the race in a solo raid, before going on to win it solo ... for another speed record-breaking edition!

The curse of the Visma | Lease a Bike team, or the law of series?

Already decimated, with the absence of Wout van Aert following his crash on A travers la Flandre (Dwars door Vlaanderen), the Team Visma | Lease a Bike expected to line up at the start of the race with Dutch Champion Dylan van Baarle as leader, and Christophe Laporte as outsider.

However, even before the start, the former race winner (van Baarle won Paris-Roubaix in 2022, then for the INEOS Grenadiers team) had to withdraw due to illness, and so it was without his leader that the Yellow B. team took the start.

The team's misfortune didn't end there, however, as Christophe Laporte, back on the bike after a period of illness and therefore without any particular ambitions, suffered a puncture on his rear wheel as early as the first cobbled sector between Troisville and Inchy. By the time he had his wheel changed, the European Champion found himself well back in the race, and several groups had already formed at the front, following the passage over the cobbles. Despite the help of his team-mate Edoardo Affini, the Frenchman from the Dutch team has never been able to bridge the gap since.
That left the van Dijke brothers to save the team's honours!

Paris-Roubaix 2024 summary

After the start in Compiègne and the neutralized section until the actual start, it was Dries de Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) who was the first to attack, as soon as the flag was lowered!

But he was unsuccessful, as were the other breakaway attempts, until kilometer 22 when a small group finally managed to break away from the peloton. It included Per Strand Hagenes (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Rasmus Tiller (Uno X Mobility), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step), Marco Haller (BORA-hansgrohe), Liam Slock (Lotto Dstny), Gleb Syritsa (Astana Qazaqstan Team) and Kamil Malecki (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team).Dusan Rajovic (Bahrain Victorious) and Dries de Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) then set off on the counter, but with an average speed of no less than 54.67 km/h in the first hour of the race, the two riders in pursuit found it hard to catch up with the 7 men in front. It was only at kilometer 80 that they managed to do so, forming a lead group of 9 riders just 15 kilometers before the first cobblestones. It was precisely on these cobblestones that Christophe Laporte (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) suffered a puncture on his rear wheel, while the same happened to Gleb Syritsa (Astana Qazaqstan Team) in the lead group.

At kilometer 119, after covering the first 4 cobbled sectors, the first part of the peloton, including the favorites, caught up with the leading group of the remaining 8 riders, leaving some 30 riders at the front of the race.

Within this group, it was the Alpecin-Deceuninck team who took charge, accelerating especially on the cobbled sectors and resuming a more usual tempo on the asphalt sections between sectors... until Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Nils Politt (BORA-hansgrohe) went on the attack.

However, this was just a manoeuvre to try and tire out his main rivals, as Mathieu van der Poel then brought his group back up on this leading trio, with 69 kilometers to go, and as soon as they reached sector #13 in Orchies, he attacked himself, going solo and opening up a sizeable gap fairly quickly.
Having only set off to make the race harder, as the World Champion declared after the finish, he eventually continued solo over the sixty kilometers or so, until he crossed the finish line triumphant in the Vélodrome in Roubaix!

Behind him, team-mate Jasper Philipsen took 2nd place, winning the sprint from a small group of 3 riders, in which Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) took 3rd and 4th places respectively.

>> Find the results of Paris-Roubaix 2024 in the race's entry in the UCI cycling calendar.

Christophe Laporte (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) was unlucky in the first cobbled sector, but didn't give up and continued his efforts. He finished as the best Frenchman, in 25th place, at 6'28".

© photos - A.S.O. / Pauline Ballet

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Classics | Paris-Roubaix

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