Van der Poel was stranded without a bike in the Arenberg.<\/span> (Photo: ELIAS ROM \/ BELGA MAG \/ Belga \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nEven that failed. Before exiting Arenberg, Van der Poel punctured again while\u00a0riding on a teammate\u2019s wheel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had two flat tires and two minutes behind, and then you know the race was over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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 Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Van der Poel was left walking around without a ride as the season\u2019s most important bike race was disappearing up France\u2019s gnarliest roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought it would come together like this,\u201d Roodhooft said. \u201cIt is what it is. It won\u2019t happen again, but it\u2019s over now.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time the team car reached him, Van der Poel was already more than two minutes down.<\/p>\n
He chased all day and clawed back to within 30 seconds of the leaders, but the damage was done.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to spend so much energy to get back to the group that it was unbelievable that I was still sprinting for the podium,\u201d Van der Poel said.<\/p>\n
Even in defeat, he was quick to tip his hat to the winner and longtime rival Van Aert.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter all the setbacks he\u2019s had, everyone is happy to see him win,\u201d he said. \u201cI am very happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bad equipment choices and worse luck: How Van der Poel bid for a fourth Paris-Roubaix unraveled in an Arenberg nightmare. Things unraveled quickly for Van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix. (Photo: Getty Images) Updated April 12, 2026 04:57PM Mathieu van der Poel saw his bid for a fourth straight Paris-Roubaix implode in a cascade of mechanicals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}