Magnificent Mathieu van der Poel goes back-to-back with Paris-Roubaix 2024 win after dominant 60km solo

In an incredibly fast edition of Paris-Roubaix, once again, no one was faster than the world champion, Mathieu van der Poel. Attacking solo with 60km to go, the Alpecin-Deceuninck powered to victory in a display of dominance.

After an infernal fight early on, a seven-man group went clear in the break. Per Strand Hagenes (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Mobility), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step), Marco Haller (BORA - hansgrohe), Liam Slock (Lotto Dstny), Gleb Syritsa (Astana Qazaqstan Team) and Kamil Małecki (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team).

Shortly after, Dries de Bondt and Dusan Rajovic countered and after a long time in no man's land, they too joined the front, inflating the number of the lead group to 9.

In the peloton however, there was an early crash with Elia Viviani and Jonas Rutsch forced to abandon and the likes of Laurens Rex, Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier hitting the deck but carrying on.

Once the race finally reached the cobbles, it didn't take long for things to split open, Christophe Laporte getting immediate bad luck with a puncture.

The pace Alpecin-Deceuninck were setting on the front was absolutely brutal with the breakaway being caught with around 150km still to go and the likes of Mads Pedersen and Tom Pidcock caught out behind.

Less than 30 riders held the front of the race with around 130km to go, although more riders were starting to get back, Pedersen and Pidcock among them.

Pidcock's INEOS Grenadiers teammate, Joshua Tarling also managed to get back into contact but having been caught on camera getting a sticky bottle from the team car, the Welshman's Paris-Roubaix hopes ended in disqualification.

With 150km done, things had settled down somewhat at the front and the lead group had swelled back into something more resembling a peloton.

In the fight for position ahead of the much-talked-about chicane and the Arenberg Forest however, Lidl-Trek and Groupama - FDJ took to the front and things began to whittle down once again. Through the forest, Pedersen put the power down on the front before he was replaced by world champion, Mathieu van der Poel. By the end of the section, only Pedersen, Jasper Philipsen and Mick van Dijke were in contact with van der Poel.

On the other side of the forest, Philipsen then suffered a puncture, as did Pedersen, Tim Wellens and Jordi Meeus. Sensing an opportunity amongst the chaos, Nils Politt, Gianni Vermeersch and Stefan Kung attacked at the head of the race. 

With 14 sectors and 68km to go, those attacking trio were caught and the race enjoyed a moment of quiet and calm. They do say though, that the calm comes before the storm and that proved to be the case as van der Poel launched a brutal attack with 60km to go, breaking free solo and quickly building up a lead.

Behind the world champion, the rest of the challengers were beginning to attack each other rather than form an organised chase, benefitting van der Poel up ahead. By the time he reached 50km to go, it was already up to a 52-second advantage for the Dutchman.

With the chase shooting themselves in the foot due to their lack of cooperation, van der Poel continued to extend his advantage in an incredibly powerful and dominant display.

Behind van der Poel, a group of five riders were fighting for the rest of the podium in Pedersen, Kung, Philipsen, Nils Politt and Laurence Pithie. A crash then seemed to have ruled Pithie out of contention although the Kiwi continued to battle hard to get back, chasing alongside Vermeersch.

By the time van der Poel reached the historic Carrefour de l'Abre section of cobbles, his lead with a mammoth 2:48, the kind of margin that has very rarely been topped in the long and illustrious history of Paris-Roubaix.

Heading onto the velodrome with victory assured, van der Poel was able to savour the moment before the clock began to tick and the battle for the podium behind began.

In the race for the podium Jasper Philipsen made it another Alpecin-Deceuninck one-two with Mads Pedersen taking third.