Double jeopardy in season openers

Mathieu van der Poel strikes gold in fastest ever Paris-Roubaix showdown.

The 120nd edition of the great Paris-Roubaix monument wasn’t short of action, with a multitude of crashes and punctures ensuing on the cobbles.

An early breakaway formed, but was short lived when a strong group of riders including favourites Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert took matters into their own hands, over 100km from the line. John Degenkolb, Jasper Philipsen, Stefan Kung, Filippo Ganna and Mads Pedersen joined the favourites to form a super group, trouncing the competition.

The cobbled sections wreaked their usual havoc in the peleton, with Fred Wright hitting the deck after his front tyre was ripped off. As he went down, he took Peter Sagan and Dylan van Baarle with him who have both have rotten luck with crashes thus far this season.

As the race entered its final 15km, John Degenkolb looked strong and set to make an upset, before an unfortunate racing incident between the two Alpecin riders left him no room and he too was out of contention after hitting the ground hard. All credit to him though for continuing and finishing just a couple of minutes off the front.

The final dramatic moment was when van der Poel and Van Aert had broken away with 5km to go, with an epic finale between the world’s best imminent. Sadly for the neutral, van Aert suffered a rear puncture on the final cobbled section which gave van der Poel a 30 second advantage, proving too much to recover and the Belgian eventually ended up losing 2nd place to Jasper Philipsen which made an Alepcin 1-2.

The German team enjoyed their best monument ever, but a special mention to the veteran John Degenkolb who looked so strong before being taken out.

Massive road-blocking crash overshadows action-packed Tour of Flanders showdown.

Tadej Pogacar claimed yet another victory after beating rivals Wout Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel in an extraordinary display of strength. The Slovenian first dragged his rivals with him, bridging the gap to the breakaway before gapping Van Aert on the Kruisberg and swiftly despatching of van der Poel on the final climb of the Oude Kwaremont. He ended up with a 16 second gap, an impressive feat on any monument stage.

Despite an epic day of racing, the action was overshadowed by a hugely controversial incident, which saw over 50 riders hit the deck from 55kph.

Following an enormous crash caused by Filip Maciejuk, the UCI have confirmed that they are considering further disciplinary action over the Bahrain Victorious rider. He was disqualified from the race immediately, but because of it being a one stage race, a furious peloton are appealing for the ban to be extended. Two high profile riders have had their seasons ended by the crash (Ben Turner- Ineos Grenadiers and Tim Wellens- UAE team Emirates) amongst a plethora of race retirements too.

It was a truly nasty incident, which cycling fans and spectators will hope doesn’t repeat itself any time soon.

Written by Ben Blake 10-04-23