Van der Poel Sunk by Pedal Fiasco at Paris-Roubaix

Mathieu van der Poel saw his bid for a fourth straight Paris-Roubaix implode in a cascade of mechanicals and bad choices at the race’s most decisive moment Sunday.

The Alpecin-Premier Tech leader punctured on the Arenberg Forest, the brutal 2.3km trench that often decides the Hell of the North.

With Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar pressing the pace, the situation quickly spiraled into black.

The main culprit? Van der Poel was running a different pedal system than the rest of his teammates.

That left Van der Poel stranded without a bike at the most crucial moment of Sunday’s epic race.

“We rode with different pedals”, he said. “Normally, I don’t take Jasper’s bike either, but I think he didn’t feel great. I tried to get out of the Arenberg, but it was impossible, and then I took my own bike back, but then I flatted again, and I knew my race was over.”

In a fast and brutal sequence of events, the Arenberg turned into a full-blown nightmare for the three-time defending champion.

Behind the chaos, the Alpecin car was stuck in traffic. Van der Poel was stranded as the race slipped away.

Teammate and former runner-up Jasper Philipsen stopped to offer his bike, but he couldn’t clip in due to the incompatible pedal system.

MVDP rolled a few meters, then threw the bike aside in frustration.

“Of course, that came together at an incredibly bad time. I never thought it would happen,” Alpecin boss Christoph Roodhooft told Sporza. “We made the decision to use the pedals in race conditions.”

Tibor Del Grosso saw the disaster unfold from the front row and tried to salvage something.

“My rear wheel was broken, so I thought I could still try to put my front wheel in Mathieu’s bike”, Del Grosso told Sporza. “My race was over anyway. It was the only thing I could do.”

‘It’s over now’

Even that failed. Before exiting Arenberg, Van der Poel punctured again while riding on a teammate’s wheel.

“I had two flat tires and two minutes behind, and then you know the race was over,” he said.

In a race where equipment can make or break the outcome, Alpecin paid a heavy price on a day when the Dutchman was favored in a generational duel with Pogačar.

Risking the most basic rule of having all the riders on the same equipment bit them, Alpecin saw both MVDP and Philipsen largely taken out in the Arenberg.

Van der Poel was left walking around without a ride as the season’s most important bike race was disappearing up France’s gnarliest roads.

“I never thought it would come together like this,” Roodhooft said. “It is what it is. It won’t happen again, but it’s over now.”

By the time the team car reached him, Van der Poel was already more than two minutes down.

He chased all day and clawed back to within 30 seconds of the leaders, but the damage was done.

Jasper Stuyven attacked late from the chase to take third, while Van der Poel finished fourth at 15 seconds back, only the second time in six starts he has missed both victory and the podium.

“I had to spend so much energy to get back to the group that it was unbelievable that I was still sprinting for the podium,” Van der Poel said.

Even in defeat, he was quick to tip his hat to the winner and longtime rival Van Aert.

“After all the setbacks he’s had, everyone is happy to see him win,” he said. “I am very happy for him.”