That was an amazing win for Wout van Aert at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. It wasn’t hard to see what the emotions meant for him, his family and his team, and my heart was with him too.
Van Aert has had such bad luck at Roubaix in the past, at bad times and crucial moments, as well as all the other accidents and setbacks he’s had, so to come back and to win it, my God, it was an amazing ride.
He was the one who initiated the attacks with that leading group, and he was on the limit at times when Tadej Pogačar really pushed him, but it just shows that when you’re a big champion, you can be really under pressure, but you can still dig so deep and keep on believing. That’s exactly what he did – you could see the efforts he had to make on some sections with Pogačar and how close he was riding, but tactically he rode just a perfect race.
That said, when it was just the two of them in that long finale, I really couldn’t pick a winner. Pogačar was putting Van Aert in difficulty a lot of times, and he kept trying on every long section until there just wasn’t anywhere left to try.
Even when they got to the finish, and I realised Pogačar was going to bank on his sprint – which he can do very well at the end of a long race – I was afraid he might beat Van Aert, because my heart really was for Wout, because of his story and what he’s been through.
I don’t think there’s anybody in the peloton who doesn’t like Wout van Aert – other riders probably wouldn’t have as much support from their rivals as he did yesterday.
Take nothing away from Pogačar, but when a rider like that who wins so often is up against a guy who has been fighting for a victory for so long, you do start feeling like Van Aert deserves a win. But it’s nothing against Pogačar: he’s an unbelievable champion. Look at the last rider who won Paris-Roubaix as a Tour de France champion, you have to go all the way back to Bernard Hinault, so let’s not forget that what he’s doing in these Monuments is still unbelievable, even if he didn’t get the five in a row on Sunday.
I think that record was probably in Pogačar’s head in the finale, thinking ‘this is my chance to win Roubaix and get the five Monuments’ and when you’re out there, you can feel that pressure. But you just have to focus on the road ahead of you and stick to the plan, which he did, but it just wasn’t enough to get rid of Van Aert this time. There’s nothing more he could have done in the sprint, but you could see how disappointed he was when he came across the line.
Pogačar said after the race that he’ll be back, but maybe not next year, but I think that could just be the disappointment talking. He had other problems yesterday, with that first mechanical and bike change and then the second puncture when he was in the front, and he probably paid for that in the final. You just hate missing an opportunity when it’s so close. So when you ask a guy at the end of a horrible day like that when he’ll be back, whilst he’s still majorly disappointed, it’s not the question you want to hear, and it’s easy to say ‘yeah, I don’t know when I’ll be back’.
But to be honest, he has to come back. He knows he’s capable of winning it, and failing to beat Van Aert in a sprint doesn’t change that.
In the chaos of the cobbles, being calm is important
There were so many incidents and mechanicals yesterday, with every big rider having an issue at some point, and I was trying to think if there was a reason, but to be honest, I couldn’t think of one specific factor.
I think what ended up making a difference was how the riders reacted. Van Aert had two key mechanicals, the same as Pogačar, but I don’t think he had to burn as much energy to get back on either time. He took a bit longer, maybe, but he stayed calm and didn’t panic at all, just kept his cool and took his time to ride back on. That was calculated and confident, and ultimately important.
Whereas with Pogačar, when he had to take the Shimano neutral bike, he did panic. The race was on and he had to make a big effort to get back. But also, when you watch it on the TV, it’s easy to say to yourself, ‘Why was there not more communication with his teammates? Why didn’t someone stop and give him their bike?’ But it’s so much harder when you’re there on the cobbles. With all the noise, the spectators, the shouting, the cars and bikes going over the cobbles, you can’t hear each other, you might not even hear your radio, so that communication isn’t easy, it all just gets lost.
Mathieu van der Poel‘s incident in the Trouée d’Arenberg was obviously the worst – the worst problem at the very worst moment. Riding a bike whose pedals he couldn’t clip into was obviously impossible, so they probably should have just made the wheel change immediately, but it’s a panic situation, so you don’t always get it right.
For Van der Poel, it’s probably even more frustrating because he was clearly on a very good day. He said he thought his race was over on the Arenberg, and his movements and body language did look that way at first, but he got going again. In those situations, it’s important for the directeur sportif to say, ‘OK, come on, let’s get going. There’s groups coming back, and the riders in front are going to have problems, anything could happen.’ Van der Poel might have thought it was over, but it’s Paris-Roubaix, you have to keep believing and stay motivated.
When he did get going, it was pretty amazing what he did, especially when he and Filippo Ganna got organised. He did the right thing pulling on the front, even though everyone was hanging onto him – he was definitely on a big day. And that’s something he will be thinking about. If he hadn’t had that issue, you’d think he would have been in the final, and when you have a really good feeling, it’s a really big disappointment.
In the moment, you just push on, but once you get to the finish, you do start thinking, ‘what a pity that happened to me’. It’s something you have to accept, and Van der Poel has had really good luck to win the race the last three years, so in the end you just have to be realistic and think ‘well, it’s a pain, but it’s Roubaix, and there’s nothing you can do about it’.
The best of the rest
As much as a lot of the attention was on Van Aert, Pogačar and Van der Poel, there were some really impressive rides in the groups behind them.
Like Van der Poel, Mads Pedersen is one who probably went to bed last night thinking ‘what if?’ What if he’d not had that crash in Valencia, where would he be in these Classics? When you see where he is, even after coming back from that, with his performances in Roubaix, Flanders and Milan-San Remo, he will definitely be thinking that without that accident, he could have won one of these races. But you can’t dwell on it for days or weeks on end, you have to think ‘that part of the season is done now, I’m going to move on and think about next year’.
Stefan Bissegger also did an amazing ride in the final, and Jasper Stuyven too, clipping off in the final to get that podium spot. He attacked just at the right moment, which is something he’s really good at, and he seemed to know exactly what to do yesterday. He was up against bigger and better riders in that chase group, but he played his cards perfectly and was rewarded with the podium. Soudal-QuickStep needed him this year and they needed that result – it was a big performance and he made sure they got the best possible out of Roubaix.
For all of these riders, Van Aert winning will have meant a lot, because it proves that the Classics aren’t just the Van der Poel vs Pogacar show. The result will give confidence to riders like Pedersen and Ganna, too, because it shows that Roubaix is still one for the big and powerful guys. Pogačar might be able to put gaps into everyone in the climbs in Flanders, but Roubaix is different. Riders will know now that if they can hang on with the big guys and dig deep in the wheel, then they can absolutely win this race. I think it will motivate them, and hopefully, they come back fired up next year.
Could Visma have played it differently for Vos?
When I finally finished commentary and the studio recording and got to tune in to the women’s Paris-Roubaix, there was only 40km to go, so when I saw those four in the lead, I thought ‘Marianne Vos is going to get her Paris-Roubaix’.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was doing all the riding, just pulling, pulling, pulling, and it looked good, but when Franziska Koch started putting in little attacks, I thought ‘my God, she must be feeling good’. Because otherwise you’d just let Pauline finish it off and go for the sprint, but instead she was able to try and attack quite a few times and from quite a long way out. So it was clear she was a threat.
Even then, though, I still felt like Marianne could take it in the sprint, and that’s clearly what the two Visma-Lease a Bike riders had decided to do. Marianne obviously has a lot of experience, and she knows what she’s doing, but I do wonder if when Koch started attacking, they could have changed the tactic a bit and started some one-two attacks to try and work her over a bit in the last few kilometres.
It was a complicated one because the chase group could have come back too, so they couldn’t fully knock off the pace and force Koch to work, so they decided to stick to the plan and keep working. Maybe Pauline could have attacked, but she wanted to work for Marianne after last year, and they made that decision.
Marianne must have been confident in her sprint, but obviously, it didn’t go her way in the velodrome. What a disappointment that must have been for her, but at the end of such a demanding race like Roubaix, you never know what will happen in the sprint.
But Visma aside, what an excellent day for Franziska Koch, what a ride from her. You could see in the recent races that she’s just in excellent shape, and she made it count yesterday. With FDJ, we always talk about Demi Vollering, but the way they’ve been winning these Classics with all different riders, it’s just an amazing start to the year and a really amazing Classics campaign.