Wout van Aert completed his Paris-Roubaix reconnaissance on Thursday, riding 130 kilometres from the start of the first sector of pavé in Troisville to sector 11 in Mons-en-Pévèle. The Belgian had a wild ride on the Arenberg Forest sector, nearly crashing after suffering a puncture.
Luckily, Van Aert has excellent bike handling skills and managed to use a cyclocross-style kick-push to right himself and veer off of the pavé and onto the walking path before rolling to a stop.
Two camera motorbikes followed Van Aert during his trip through the Trouée. A longer video posted on Het Laatste Nieuws showed Van Aert had suffered a front tyre puncture.
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The rest of Van Aert's pre-ride appeared to go to plan. A Strava file from the ride posted on Thursday showed that he did not go over the pavé sectors at full gas pace, unlike Tadej Pogačar, who set Strava records across several Paris-Roubaix sectors last week.
Van Aert's time on the Mons-en-Pévèle sector was 38 seconds slower than Pogačar's, and he was 41 seconds slower over a segment including the Auchy to Bersée sector.
After finishing just off the podium in the Tour of Flanders, Van Aert is eyeing Paris-Roubaix as a top goal. He did not compete in the race in 2024 after a crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen left him with a broken collarbone and several broken ribs.
His best results in Paris-Roubaix are a second place behind solo winner Dylan van Baarle in 2022 and third behind solo winner Mathieu van der Poel, being out-sprinted by Jasper Philipsen on the Roubaix velodrome.
