Fastest Paris-Roubaix in history & longest men's solo in 30 years; Mathieu van der Poel's greatest ever performance?

Cycling
Monday, 08 April 2024 at 22:12
mathieuvanderpoel

Mathieu van der Poel has claimed a second successive Paris-Roubaix victory and in some style too after a dominant performance on the historic French cobbles this Sunday afternoon.

Breaking a record the Dutchman set last year, this was also the quickest Paris-Roubaix in the long and storied history of cycling's most famous one-day race. 12 months ago, the average speed was a blistering 46.8 kilometres an hour, a speed that was blown out of the water in 2024 with van der Poel's effort of 47.8, a whole kilometre an hour faster than ever before.

With his race-winning attack coming just under 60km from the line, van der Poel also took the longest men's solo victory at Paris-Roubaix in 30 years, a record dating back to Andrei Tchmil all the way back in 1994. 

For the Alpecin-Deceuninck team too, it was a record breaking day as the became the first team ever to win the opening three monuments of the season (Jasper Philipsen Milano-Sanremo, Van der Poel Tour of Flanders & Van der Poel Paris-Roubaix ed.).

Plus, with Jasper Philipsen winning the sprint for second, Alpecin-Deceuninck secured a second-straight one-two finish at Paris-Roubaix.

Is this the greatest ever performance in the legendary career of Mathieu van der Poel? Let us know what you think!

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10 Comments
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StardustDragon 08 April 2024 at 14:04+ 1653

Maybe

Ben 08 April 2024 at 14:48+ 491

Andrei Tchmil. Boy howdy! There's a name from the past!

Mistermaumau 08 April 2024 at 07:25+ 3286

Probably the only rider who couldn’t put all his nationalities on a podium ;-)

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PAULO 08 April 2024 at 07:24+ 344

Born near China on the southeast Russia end up being Belgium, Ukrainian and Moldavian... Can't make this up.... Always got great wins!!! Classic rider for sure

Mistermaumau 08 April 2024 at 07:25+ 3286

Strange that he never manged anything in a tour though

Ben 08 April 2024 at 07:25+ 491

No climbing legs.

Mistermaumau 08 April 2024 at 08:25+ 3286

I don’t get offended by people who post out of ignorance ;-) I think you’ll find there are some very good reasons why you feel that, firstly, you probably never did any serious research and secondly, you forget that for most of history they were not classed as Ukrainians but just the fact that you didn’t even mention boxing and athletics kind of disqualified your whole comment as a way to criticise more than anything else. Now, if you want me to go into more particulars, some of the less obvious and discussed reasons why some countries’ performers stay under the radar, they are not marketed as pushily, they often emigrate to win for other countries (in fact, in this day and age you can call it passport shopping, which country wants to win more medals, employ an immigrant, no offense Mo F and co.) and no offense to you but don’t just blurt stuff out especially if you don’t provide ANYTHING as an argument to back yourself up :-)

Ben 09 April 2024 at 09:39+ 491

Sounds like pro-Russian trolling.

Ben 08 April 2024 at 14:48+ 491

You've left some truly despicable comments.

Mistermaumau 09 April 2024 at 01:42+ 3286

Good for you, you’re lucky that other people put up resistance to wrongs for you then. Don’t think you’ve thought much about your heritage, background, history from your part of the world or otherwise you’d realise how lucky you are to have been deposited somewhere where there is « no need » for a person to care about politics (which doesn’t usually stop them moaning about pathetically insignificant political decisions).

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