Paris-Roubaix: All eyes on Tadej Pogacar as Van der Poel and Ferrand-Prevot make history on the cobbles

New York Times

13-04-2025

Mathieu van der Poel won a historic third successive Paris-Roubaix on Sunday after a compelling battle with Tadej Pogacar on the cobbled roads of northern France.
This had been one of the most anticipated editions of the race in years, with Pogacar, the reigning world champion and Tour de France winner, making his Paris-Roubaix debut against one-day specialist Van der Poel.
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Both riders had been aiming to make history, but a crash for Pogacar with 37km left saw his Dutch rival ride away to victory, having narrowly avoided falling in the same incident. He did, however, have to cope with a bottle being thrown into his face by a spectator — something he later described as 'attempted manslaughter' to Belgian broadcaster Sporza.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot's win at Paris-Roubaix Femmes saw the Frenchwoman become the first home winner of either race since 1997.
Nicknamed 'The Hell of the North', Paris-Roubaix is arguably the most iconic of cycling's five 'Monument' races.
A 260km route through rural northern France, the course features over 53km of leg-numbing and crash-inducing cobbled sections, including the dreaded 2.3km long Arenberg Trench.
The race then ends with one and a half laps of the historic Roubaix velodrome, on the Belgian border, before the winner is presented with a cobble of their own on the podium.
Jacob Whitehead breaks down the key moments from the race.
Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates team were uncomfortable with their star rider taking on Paris-Roubaix — terrified a crash may damage his chances at the Tour de France in July, just as happened in 2023 after Pogacar broke his wrist at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
But using the sway that comes with being the greatest rider of a generation, Pogacar's desire to race won out.
In the end, it was a crash that was decisive — and though the world champion was unhurt, Pogacar's crash into a muddy ditch with 37km left was enough for Van der Poel to escape down the road and solo to victory.
Pogačar goes down! pic.twitter.com/pWNe0zrBKT
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) April 13, 2025
Had he won on Sunday, Pogacar would have been the reigning champion of two of the three Grand Tours, of four of the five Monuments, as well as being the reigning world champion. In racing Paris-Roubaix, he became the first reigning Tour de France champion to ride the race since Greg LeMond in 1991. By eventually finishing second, he became the first reigning Tour de France champion to finish on the podium since Eddy Merckx in 1975.
As a climber first and foremost, though that is reductive of his generational talent on a bicycle, it is remarkable that Pogacar was even a contender for victory at Paris-Roubaix given the challenge its fearsome cobbles and largely flat route present to lighter riders.
Tadej Pogacar so close to disaster! 😱 #ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/E3L4uT5iK0
— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) April 13, 2025
It was extra busy at the infamous Trouée d'Arenberg in anticipation of Pogacar's arrival and though the Slovenian led the peloton through the cobbles, an unexpected attack beforehand, plus the ongoing calorific efforts of one of professional cycling's hardest races, left him drained in the kilometres afterwards. In dropping back for urgent refuelling, he swerved and almost fell under his own team car's back wheels.
But the recovery, when it came, was swift. A trademark Pogacar attack splintered the peloton with 70km left. Further aggression (combined with bad luck for some key rivals) whittled down the field until he was in the position he needed to be — alone with Van der Poel.
However, with 37km remaining, he made his first significant mistake — overcommitting to a tight right-handed corner and running wide onto muddy turf. Though it was not a high-impact crash, his bike got caught under him and allowed Van der Poel to escape — before a puncture and subsequent bike change with 20km remaining sealed the Slovenian's fate.
Pogacar beamed a smile, or a possible grimace, as he entered the Roubaix velodrome — though he lost this year, this more than proved he has the ability to win this race in the future. If he fancies another go, that is.
The first reigning Tour de France champion to podium #ParisRoubaix since Eddy Merckx in 1975 💛
We are so proud of @TamauPogi 🌈🧱
He left absolutely everything on the cobbles of l'Enfer du Nord 🇫🇷 #WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/ptfB6uVKR8
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) April 13, 2025
The build-up might have all been about Pogacar, but that was unfair — Matthieu Van der Poel was going for his own shot at history.
Having won the past two editions of Paris-Roubaix, soloing to victory from 60km out last season, the Dutchman was bidding to become the first man to win this race three times in a row since Italian rider Francesco Moser between 1978 and 1980. It was a mission he completed with aplomb.
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Last month, he outsprinted Pogacar to win Milan-San Remo, having had the legs to stay with the Slovenian on the Poggio, and his Alpecin-Deceuninck team appeared to have played their tactics perfectly again on Sunday.
With 70km left, Van der Poel and his teammate, Jasper Philipsen, second in the previous two editions and one of the world's fastest sprinters, were alone with Pogacar. Mads Pedersen, who had looked strong throughout the spring calendar, was unlucky to suffer a puncture just as Pogacar had attacked from the bunch moments earlier. The Dane would eventually recover to take third place.
If the leading trio of Pogacar, Philipsen and Van der Poel reached the finish line together, Philipsen would almost certainly have the speed to win, so Pogacar needed to find a way to definitively drop the Belgian to at least make it a one-on-one battle with Van der Poel.
He eventually did so on an incline towards the end the five-star difficulty Mons-en-Pévèle sector with 45km remaining, to leave himself alone with Van der Poel.
Van der Poel's tactics would likely have been to hang with Pogacar until the final sprint, but that decision was taken out of his hands after the Slovenian crashed with 37km left. Van der Poel's supreme bike-handling skills prevented him from crashing alongside Pogacar, as he instantaneously adjusted his line and avoided the barriers by inches.
He was away, though would still face several tribulations. The most dramatic of these was when he was hit in the face by a plastic bottle thrown by a spectator, staying upright and appearing unaffected. The French police have opened an investigation.
Spectator throws water bottle in Mathieu van der Poel's face at Paris-Roubaix. #ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/dnpmg3D3Dt
— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) April 13, 2025
Violence is unexpected, but mechanicals are not — and with 15km left, it was Van der Poel's turn for a bike change. His team were far quicker to him than Pogacar's, however, only diminishing their rider's lead by 10 seconds.
After the race, Van der Poel also revealed that his race radio had broken, leaving him unable to communicate with his team car.
Bike change for Mathieu van der Poel 😮
Twists and turns in every kilometre, could Pogačar make it back?! pic.twitter.com/Pe1JZ2Tevo
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) April 13, 2025
Van der Poel reached the Roubaix velodrome with a comfortable lead — he now has a record of 14 Monument podium finishes (and eight wins) from 21 starts and sits alongside Pogacar (also eight Monument wins) as this generation's finest one-day rider, and is surely on his way to becoming one of the greatest cyclists of all-time. A historic rivalry for the sport now has another dramatic chapter.
Just as the Tour de France has not seen a French winner since 1985, the country's second-most famous race had also not seen a French athlete triumph in decades, not since Frederic Guesdon in 1997.
But having only just returned to cycling on the road – she delivered France a gold medal in cross-country mountain biking at last summer's Olympics — 33-year-old Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won Saturday's edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes after a sparkling solo attack.
The Femmes route was 148km long, with just under 30km of cobbled sections, and the pre-race favourite was last year's winner, the Belgian rider Lotte Kopecky. However, the reigning world champion was left isolated in the leading group and forced to chase several attacks herself.
This meant that when Ferrand-Prevot attacked with 25km left, with other riders recovering after a cobbled section, the French rider was able to swiftly build up a significant gap. She stayed away comfortably to take victory on her race debut, winning by 58 seconds from Italy's Letizia Borghesi.
'I've been sick for the last two days. I didn't even know if I was going to start,' she told reporters post-race. 'In the end, I did the right thing by coming. I started thinking I was going to do my best to help (team-mate) Marianne Vos win. I can't believe it.'
Ferrand-Prevot's return to road cycling has brought outstanding results — third at Strade Bianche, second at the Tour of Flanders, and now a win at Paris-Roubaix. She revealed in the aftermath that her season goal was to win the Tour de France Femmes, in what will be a high-quality battle between her, Kopecky, and former winners Demi Vollering (2023) and Kasia Niewiadoma (2024).
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2021 — Sonny Colbrelli (ITA) / Lizzie Deignan (GBR)
2022 — Dylan van Baarle (NED) / Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA)
2023 — Mathieu van der Poel (NED) / Alison Jackson (CAN)
2024 — Mathieu van der Poel (NED) / Lotte Kopecky (BEL)
2025 — Mathieu van der Poel (NED) / Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (FRA)
April 20: Amstel Gold
April 23: La Fleche Wallone
April 27: Liege-Bastogne-Liege
May 9 – June 1: Giro d'Italia