A touch of luck, a lot of strength, and "racing like juniors" was the recipe for Mathieu van der Poel as the Dutchman soloed home to a fourth career Monument victory at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday afternoon.
The 28-year-old was active throughout the 257km race and surged to the front heading into the Arenberg with 94km to go to form what would turn out to be the decisive move of the race.
He still had the likes of Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), and eternal rival Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) to beat, though. Much of the leading group of seven were dispensed with on the final five-star sector at the Carrefour de l'Arbre. Van Aert, however, fell victim to bad luck exiting the sector with a flat rear tyre.
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There was the luck, while the strength came via the initial Arenberg move and several more that followed. The junior-style racing – non-stop movement and lots of attacks – also played into Van der Poel's hands, he said.
"Again, there was no breakaway and we just raced like juniors from start to finish," Van der Poel said in the post-race press conference. "It was quite crazy, but for me it's not bad actually because he harder the race, the better it is for me in the final, especially in a race like this where it's difficult to make a difference.
"I enjoyed it and like I said I think it's not bad for me because it makes the race really hard. But it's strange - we've seen in the last years that we just go all out from the beginning to the end. I think it was the fastest edition today - I don't know for sure but it was incredible."
Van der Poel went on to say that he had tried several moves to distance the high-class group he found himself racing with – spectators at the Auchy à Bersée, Mons-en-Pévèle and Pont-Thibault à Ennevelin cobbled sectors were all treated to accelerations by the champion.
"I felt pretty good but if you see the names that are in front, they you don't drop them just like that. I tried to do a couple of attacks to make it a hard final," he said. "I wasn't able to drop them but in the end it all worked out with a bit of luck of course but also with good legs."
Away from Van der Poel's eventual decisive win – 46 seconds ahead of teammate Jasper Philipsen in the Roubaix velodrome – the big talking points of the day came with the bad luck of Van Aert and John Degenkolb (Team DSM).
The German, who won the race in 2015 and again looked in top form, crashed on the Carrefour de l'Arbre after riding in the gutter and running out of road and colliding with a spectator as Philipsen and then Van der Poel ahead of him shifted across the cobbles.
Van Aert, meanwhile, looked to be the only man with the measure of Van der Poel before that killer blow struck his back wheel metres before the end of the sector.
"I haven't seen the images yet, so I have to see them," Van der Poel said of Degenkolb's crash. "I don't know if it was my fault or if he touched a spectator or hit a bump. If it was my fault, then my apologies but for sure it wasn't on purpose and it was just a race situation but I'm glad I could avoid it.
"For sure it's a decisive moment," he added, referring to Van Aert's puncture minutes later. "It's really, really unlucky for Wout and the race would've been completely different. But as I said before, you don't only need good legs but also a bit of luck and I had both today. But for sure it would've been a different race if he didn't have that flat tyre."
After wins at the Tour of Flanders in 2020 and 2022, as well as his Milan-San Remo stunner last month, Van der Poel has more Monument titles than anyone in the peloton, barring Tadej Pogačar (also on four), of course.
We may have to wait almost a year to witness the splendour of Van der Poel in the spring Classics again, but the biggest stage will welcome him again in the summer – a path of altitude camps and the Tour de Suisse paves the way to the Tour de France for the Monuments man.
