Mathieu Van der Poel Triumphs at Paris-Roubaix, Achieving Back-to-Back Victories

Mathieu Van der Poel wins by a margin at the Paris-Roubaix, thus repeating last year's success. The Dutch world champion is also the first, since 1962 to date, to win Flanders and Roubaix in the same year while wearing the rainbow jersey. Jean Philipsen finished in second place, 2'57" behind Van der Poel. Interestingly, last year Van der Poel and his Belgian teammate also finished first and second at the Paris-Roubaix. The mother of all classics began in the morning with a fall involving several athletes in the race. After about an hour and a half of racing, twenty cyclists came into contact and ended up on the ground with the Italian Elia Viviani being the worst off. The rider born in 1989 was forced to retire and was transported to the nearest hospital by ambulance. Jonathan Milan was also involved in the crash and was forced to leave the race. Cycling, today the Paris-Roubaix. Moser: "Now in the group I could never race. The chicane? Nonsense." Pre-race concerns The "Race of the Stones", as the Paris-Roubaix is called due to the many sections that present cobblestones within the course. There are 29 of these, with a total of 53 km on an uneven surface. The stretch leading to the Arenberg forest, then, had worried the organizers in the days before the start of the race. To avoid falls near the forest, the section was modified by inserting a chicane. This was necessary to make sure that the group slows down before the bottleneck leading to Arenberg, reducing, according to their predictions, the danger of that stretch.