Mathieu van der Poel has continued his electric start to 2024. In just his fifth race day of the campaign, the world champion has secured his second monument victory of the season at Paris-Roubaix.
"It's hard to believe actually," reflects van der Poel in his post-race interview, having taken the win on the historic French cobbles for the second year in succession after launching a brutal attack with 60km to go. "The team was even stronger than last year and I'm super proud of the boys. Very happy to finish it off!"
In the fastest Paris-Roubaix in history, van der Poel's victory was actually the longest men's solo in 30 years and one of his greatest ever performances. But was it planned? "No not really, I just wanted to make the race hard because I know that's my strength and I felt super good today," he answers. "When I had the gap, I knew it was tailwind to the finish line mostly but yeah, I had a really good day today."
"You always know in Roubaix that a puncture is never far away but I had quite a gap and the car was behind me so I was confident," he continues. "I could really enjoy the moment more than I could last week (at the Tour of Flanders ed.) because then I was at my limit but today I felt incredible."
Van der Poel also joined a select group of riders to have won Paris-Roubaix in the Rainbow Jersey. "I never could have dreamt of this as a child," he says honestly. "I was super motivated for this year. I wanted to show the jersey in a nice way but yeah, this goes beyond expectations and I'm a bit lost for words actually."
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