“Selfishly, I’m happy that Van Aert beat Pogacar” - Brian Holm calls Paris-Roubaix 2026 ‘one of the best ever’

Wout van Aert’s long-awaited Paris-Roubaix triumph has been hailed as the crowning moment of one of the wildest editions in recent memory, with Danish pundit Brian Holm arguing the 2026 race belonged in the conversation with the very best the Monument has produced.

Speaking on Eurosport.dk after Sunday’s race, Holm said: “When you sit and watch the race, you start to wonder if this might be one of the best editions ever.”

It was not just the result that drove that verdict, but the sheer volume of drama packed into the day, from repeated punctures among the favourites to the remarkable recovery rides of Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel.

Paris-Roubaix rarely needs help producing spectacle, but this edition seemed to lurch from one turning point to the next. Van der Poel was knocked off course by mechanical problems and still clawed his way back into the race. Pogacar also lost ground, then somehow returned to the front and finished second. All the while, Van Aert kept himself in the winning conversation and then delivered the finish that finally brought him the cobblestone trophy that had long felt missing from his palmares.

For Holm, that combination made the race exceptional. He was particularly struck by the scale of the comeback efforts from Pogacar and Van der Poel, saying: “It was incredible how much Pogacar and Van der Poel chased. It’s unbelievable that they were even able to come back at all.”

That was what made the race feel so different. Even after major setbacks, the biggest names kept reappearing, refusing to let the race settle into a simple script.

Holm’s reading of the race was shaped heavily by what the two pre-race headliners still managed to do after things had gone wrong. “These are the best riders in the world who are up there riding. So it should have been impossible,” he said, before adding that he had genuinely believed Pogacar’s race was over when the Slovenian ran into trouble. “For Pogacar, I also thought it was over. It was crazy to watch.”

That detail matters because it says a lot about the edition Van Aert ended up winning. This was not a quiet day where rivals faded one by one, and the strongest rider simply rode away. It was a race where the favourites kept crashing back into the story, forcing new calculations almost every time the race seemed settled.

Van der Poel’s ride to fourth, in particular, became one of the defining subplots of the day. Pogacar, meanwhile, still came away with second place, again proving that Paris-Roubaix is no longer some exotic side mission in his Monument collection but a race he can genuinely win.

Holm’s most eye-catching line came when he admitted, “Selfishly, I’m happy that Van Aert beat Pogacar.”

That was not just a throwaway preference. He explained it as a question of racing logic, arguing that Paris-Roubaix should still reward a certain type of rider. “It fits the logic that a big, powerful rider, especially with a tailwind, should be able to beat a climber in a race like this,” Holm said. “And that’s exactly what happened.”

That view will not be universal, especially after Pogacar again showed he belongs right at the front of the race, but it cuts into one of the biggest themes of modern cycling. Pogacar has already broken so many old assumptions about which riders can win which races that every near miss in Roubaix now feels like a challenge to the race’s old rules. On this occasion, though, Van Aert held that line.

Holm also placed the victory in the context of Van Aert’s recent years, which had been shaped by injury setbacks, bad luck and repeated questions over whether he would ever get this one. “Van Aert has been plagued by bad luck for quite a few years now,” Holm said. “When he broke his ankle in the winter, nobody believed he could win Paris-Roubaix.”

That is what gave the result its emotional weight. Van Aert was not simply adding another big win to an already decorated career. He was finally landing the Monument that had become an obsession, both for himself and for Belgian cycling more broadly. Holm’s verdict on that point was clear. “A true Classics king won today.”

That line lands because it speaks to a long-running tension around Van Aert’s career. He has won a great deal, but he has often been discussed through what slipped away rather than what he secured. Paris-Roubaix changes that balance immediately.

Holm ended his verdict in similarly emphatic fashion, calling it “an edition for the history books” and adding: “It’s the best bike race in the world.”

That is the broader significance of Paris-Roubaix 2026. It was not memorable because one rider dominated. It was memorable because the race never stopped moving. Van der Poel looked out of it and came back. Pogacar looked delayed and came back. Van Aert still had to beat the world champion at the velodrome to finish the job.

That is why this result will sit differently from many other Monument wins. Van Aert did not win a controlled race. He won the version of Roubaix that every rider fears and every fan remembers.