"If he hadn’t made that mistake, we would’ve reached the Vélodrome together" - Mathieu van der Poel admits benefiting from Tadej Pogacar's Paris-Roubaix slip-up

For the third year in a row, Mathieu van der Poel has soloed to the win at Paris-Roubaix. In 2025, though, the Dutchman was pushed incredibly hard on the cobbles by his Classics super-rival, Tadej Pogacar, with a small slip-up from the world champion ultimately proving the decisive factor on the day.

Just inside the final 40km, on the 5* Mons-en-Pévèle, Van der Poel launched a brutal acceleration, but rather than putting Pogacar in difficulty, it ultimately dropped his teammate Jasper Philipsen, leaving just those two familiar faces to battle it out for the win once again. As Pogacar then looked to put the pressure on Van der Poel though, the world champion got a corner completely wrong, and suddenly it was the Alpecin-Deceuninck man who had clear road up ahead, something he never relented on all the way to the finish line.

“This means a lot to me,” said the now three-time Paris-Roubaix winner Van der Poel in his immediate post-race interview afterwards. “I really suffered out there today. It’s a shame that Tadej crashed. I think he misjudged the corner. If he hadn’t made that mistake, I believe we would’ve reached the Vélodrome together. When I got a flat tire, I had no idea what my lead was because my earpiece had stopped working. Luckily, everything turned out fine.”

"The pace was incredibly high and I think he misjudged the turn. I was able to react quickly enough to stay upright. I don’t know what happened after that because I suddenly had quite a big gap. At that point, I just had to commit. That’s part of racing," Van der Poel added. "To win ahead of Pogacar is definitely something special. If he hadn’t made that mistake, we probably would’ve ridden to the velodrome together and sprinted it out. It would’ve been very tough to drop him, but that’s part of racing. I think he’ll come back next year looking for revenge."