It's likely nothing dampen the spirits of
Mathieu van der Poel this evening, following the
Alpecin-Deceuninck leader's historic win at
Paris-Roubaix 2025. As it turns out though, the race jury might be trying to do just that, handing the race winner and his team boss
Christoph Roodhooft a sizeable post-race fine.
The reason? Well the race jury adjudged Van der Poel to have taken some illegal feeding as he received some help from the team car inside the final 14 kilometres, whilst he soloed towards the winning line and attempted to hold off any potential fightback from world champion
Tadej Pogacar. As a result, both Van der Poel and Roodhooft have been handed a fine of 1,000 Swiss francs for the violation.
Speaking in his post-race interview, Van der Poel admitted he had been struggling hard in the last 20-30 kilometres. “I really suffered in the last 30 kilometres, especially because I ended up alone after Tadej’s mistake," revealed the now three-time winner of the French cobbled Classic.
"Otherwise, it would have been very difficult to drop each other. Now I had to go solo from far out, and that cost a lot of energy.”
As it turned out, it wasn’t just Alpecin-Deceuninck under the spotlight either - several other teams faced penalties as well. Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Intermarché-Wanty, and the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team were each hit with fines after riders from their squads, though not specifically identified, were seen taking routes outside the official race course.
As a result, team directors Sébastien Hinault,
Aike Visbeek, and Julien Jurdie were each fined 200 Swiss francs. Tudor’s sports director Marcel Sieberg faced even harsher consequences: a 500-franc fine and disqualification mid-race due to violations involving the team car. To top it off, Intermarché-Wanty also received a 200-franc fine after a staff member was caught handing a feed improperly to a rider.