Wout van Aert has claimed his second Monument victory, beating favourites Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel at the Paris-Roubaix, first Belgian to win since Philippe Gilbert in 2019. Van Aert, who won Milan-San Remo in 2020, ended Van der Poel's streak of three wins in a row since 2023 (finished fourth, 15 seconds behind van Aert), and denied Pogacar of the last Monument he is missing from his already historic trophy list in the final sprint. Another Belgian, Jasper Stuyven, finished third 13 seconds behind.
Wout van Aert's bad luck, which is "part of what makes him charming" according to CyclingWeekly, has denied the Belgian of trophies: crashes or puncture have stood in the way. That may explain why a non-French cyclist received so much support by the local fans as he outsprinted Pogacar in the velodrome.
"Winning this race means basically everything to me. We make so many sacrifices to get to this level, to always fight back, and every year our target is this race and Flanders. To finish it off in this way in a sprint with Tadej in his jersey, there's no better way to do it", said Van Aert, who remembered the bad experiences from previous year, but explained they gave him the knowledge to pull it off on Sunday.
Van Aert dedicated his victory to Michael Goolaerts, Belgian cyclist who died of a cardiac arrest while racing in Briastre during the 2018 edition of the Paris-Roubaix, when he was only 23.