“If that car hadn’t been blocking everyone at the entrance to the Forest...” - Alpecin boss takes blame for Van der Poel’s decisive Arenberg setback

What was supposed to be another defining day for Mathieu van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix instead unravelled in a matter of moments inside the Trouée d’Arenberg, and in the aftermath, Alpecin’s team boss did not shy away from where things went wrong.

Speaking after the race to IDL Pro Cycling, Christoph Roodhooft pointed to the chaotic sequence at the entrance to the Forest as the turning point, explaining: “We were stood still for over a minute. Behind us, the peloton came through and was able to pass,” before adding, “If that car hadn't been blocking everyone at the entrance to the Forest, I think nothing would have been lost.”

What followed was not a single mistake, but a cascade of problems that quickly took Van der Poel out of contention. Roodhooft described how the situation escalated within seconds, noting that “there was a long chain of events leading up to it,” while also stressing how fine the margins were in that moment: “We should simply have been there a minute earlier.”

The sense of lost opportunity only grew when reflecting on the position they held before everything went wrong. “At that point, I think we were in a really good position in the race,” he said, underlining just how quickly the situation turned.

Among the issues was Van der Poel’s front-wheel puncture, which forced an improvised solution that only added to the disruption. “He eventually takes Jasper’s bike, but it had different pedals on it,” Roodhooft explained, a detail that would soon become central to the post-race discussion.

That decision has since come under heavy scrutiny. Alpecin had opted to use prototype pedals as part of ongoing testing, a call Roodhooft openly addressed. “They are prototype pedals. I had agreed for them to also be tested in competition,” he said, before admitting the consequences could not have come at a worse time: “today it came at an incredibly bad moment.”

With hindsight, the responsibility was clear in his own mind. “Right now I think it was very stupid of me,” he said, before adding, “I don't understand how I didn't think of it. It’s more unlikely than winning the lottery, all of it falling together like that.”

He also made clear that lessons had already been taken from the incident. “It won’t happen again. But it’s done now.”

The situation was compounded by the unique circumstances inside Arenberg. For the first time, no personnel were allowed in the sector with spare wheels, while team cars were unable to move forward due to the blockage at the entrance. As Roodhooft put it, “we had no chance to fix it or to be there,” leaving riders to react on instinct.

That instinct was evident in the moment Jasper Philipsen handed over his bike, with Roodhooft reflecting that “at that moment, they would actually have been better off with just the wheel, but that's all easy to say in hindsight,” a line that summed up the split-second decisions forced by Roubaix’s chaos.

Despite everything, Van der Poel still fought his way to fourth place, a ride that underlined both his form and what might have been. “It will have been close to his best race ever, I think,” Roodhooft said, a striking assessment given how the race had unfolded.

That contrast defines the frustration of the day. The condition was there, the position was there, but the chance to fight for victory slipped away before the race had fully taken shape.

For a rider chasing a fourth consecutive Paris-Roubaix victory, the emotional toll was inevitable.

Roodhooft captured that feeling bluntly when reflecting on the aftermath, saying: “When you're in this condition, in this race, and you've won the last three editions, and then you have to let it slip away like that… that's enough to make you never want to ride a bike again.”

On a day shaped by chaos, timing and misfortune, even the strongest rider in the race was left chasing events rather than controlling them, a reminder that at Paris-Roubaix, nothing is ever guaranteed.