Belgian ends decade-old run of bad luck in event
‘It’s everything to me … I stopped believing a lot of times’
Wout van Aert shattered a decade-old jinx to win Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, outduelling the world champion, Tadej Pogacar, in a brutal classic race across the cobbles.
The 31-year-old sustained a puncture as did Pogacar and their great rival Mathieu van der Poel, who had two mechanical problems and could not contest the final sprint, which went in Van Aert’s favour for his second title in one of the five Monument classics after his Milan-Sanremo victory in 2020.
Van Aert, who had been plagued by bad luck in the Queen of the Classics, thwarted Pogacar’s attacks on the cobbles and wrapped it up with a trademark burst of speed in the final straight on the Roubaix Velodrome. Van Aert’s fellow Belgian Jasper Stuyven took third place, 13 seconds behind.
