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Professional cyclist van der Poel
Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP
Dutch professional cyclist Mathieu van der Poel won the 121st edition of the prestigious Paris-Roubaix classic after a 60-kilometer solo. After 259.7 kilometers - 55.7 km of which were on the infamous cobblestones - the world champion from the Alpecin-Deceuninck team entered the Roubaix velodrome as a great triumph.
There were falls again, but the worst fears after the dramas of the past few weeks did not come true. The biggest crash occurred in the stressful initial phase. 37 kilometers after the start, around 20 riders fell in a town, including Nils Politt and Jonasrutsch (EF Education-EasyPost). Forrutsch the race was over. There were no further mass falls.
"I had a pretty good day"
Van der Poel won his second cobblestone after last year's success and is the first rider since Tom Boonen (2008, 2009) to successfully defend his title. »It wasn't really planned. I wanted to make the race difficult, that's my strength. I had a pretty good day,” said van der Poel.
The 29-year-old, who had already won the Tour of Flanders last weekend, ended up three minutes ahead of his Belgian teammate Jasper Philipsen. Former world champion Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) from Denmark came third.
The German hopeful Politt (UAE Emirates) was left behind in the sprint of his pursuers and came fourth. Politt narrowly missed his second Roubaix podium after his second place in 2019. John Degenkolb (dsm-unternehmenich PostNL), who was the second German to triumph at the “Queen of the Classics” in 2015 after Josef Fischer (1896), took twelfth place.
On Saturday, Belgian world champion Lotte Kopecky won the fourth edition of the women's race. The 28-year-old from the SD Worx-Protime team won after 148.5 kilometers and a total of 29.2 kilometers of cobblestones. The best German was Franziska Koch (dsm-unternehmenich PostNL) in 32nd place.
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