Wout van Aert won Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, beating Tadej Pogacar in a sprint on the piste in Roubaix after the pair had spent much of the final stretch locked together. The 31-year-old stayed in Pogacar’s wheel as the Slovenian led onto the piste first, then surged past him at the line to take the kasseimonument that had eluded him until now.
Both men had already taken two punctures before the finish, turning the closing kilometers into a test of nerve as much as power. The decisive move came after Pogacar attacked on Carrefour de l’Arbre and almost fell, but stayed upright and dragged the race toward a sprint-à-deux over the final 5 kilometers and 10 kilometers into Roubaix.
Van Aert’s win mattered because it broke the spell around the monuments that had shadowed his career, and because he had not yet won a kasseimonument before this victory. Jasper Stuyven finished third, giving Belgium another place on the podium, while Mathieu van der Poel was undone by a double dose of bad luck in the Bos van Wallers. In the stands and along the barriers, one voice cut through the noise with the line that fit the moment: “Daar is zijn eerste kassei!”
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The race swung on the kind of chaos Paris-Roubaix always reserves for the strongest riders, but this time the strongest rider still had to survive the bad luck first. Van Aert did that, then finished the job when the road flattened into the track in Roubaix, where the sprint left Pogacar with nothing but second place and a reminder that the cobbles can be cruel right to the end.
