In one of the greatest performances of his already storied career at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, Mathieu van der Poel not only took the fastest win in the race's history and the longest solo in 30 years, the Dutchman also made the day of a 7-year-old superfan.
Young Ayden Brancart and his parents, Tom and Mariska travelled to the roadside to show their support for the world champion as he tackled the historic French cobbles. “Ayden is crazy about Mathieu and had put on his jersey to support with full dedication,” says dad Tom in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad, revealing his boy had already managed to secure a hand-signed rainbow jersey from van der Poel in Koksijde over the winter.
“Ayden saw Mathieu coming and was already shouting. You saw Mathieu look at his water bottle and then throw it at Ayden,” his father continues, recapping what went down this Sunday. “It even made Ayden silent for a moment. And to get him to shut up, that's difficult!”
In the end, van der Poel took a thunderous victory at Paris-Roubaix. In the quickest-ever edition of the race, van der Poel was victorious by three minutes from his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate, Jasper Philipsen, taking his second monument of the season in the process.
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