Almost everything went perfectly for Alpecin-Deceuninck at Paris-Roubaix 2024 as Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen secured a one-two finish for the second straight year. The unsung hero for the team though, was Gianni Vermeersch.
"Last year we would have liked to get into the top ten with three men, but that just didn't work out. Today the picture is complete," reflects the Belgian who managed to hold on for a very impressive 6th place finish, despite burying himself in the service of his leaders during the day. “I was lucky that I still had a strong Laurence Pithie with me, who I think had been unlucky in the group in front of me. He was the engine. I was still able to ride away from my group in the stretch before Camphin-en-Pévèle, so yes. I'm going to sleep well tonight.”
“Last year we rode almost the perfect race. We couldn't have done better, but I think we did it anyway," Vermeersch continues. "On some strips, Oscar Riesebeek rode very fast, with a crosswind, which quickly caused the race to fall into a decisive fold. I looked back after a stretch and saw that there were still thirty or forty men there. I shouted into my earpiece that we had to keep riding full speed. From then on it never stopped.”
For the second straight year, Alpecin-Deceuninck's relentless pace setting broke the all-time record for fastest-ever Paris-Roubaix, although when van der Poel attacked with 60km to go, Vermeersch knew his main work was done.
“It was still a long way to the track, but when he makes such an attack, you know he is super strong. That has proven to be the case," he concludes." How are we going to celebrate? No idea, but I think with a big party.”
What a ride by Gianni Vermeersch today! The man pounded out an incredible 4.3 w/kg (average) & 4.9 w/kg (normalized) for nearly 6 hours, burning 5.8k kJ’s (~1k / hour) and generating 444 TSS (at a Strava 360w FTP estimate) to take a fantastic 6th place in the Hell of the North!
