ROUBAIX, France (Reuters) – Six months after ending the Queen of the Classics exterior the time restrict, Dylan van Baarle received the Paris-Roubaix Monument on Sunday to give the Ineos Grenadiers group their most prestigious victory in a one-day race.
The 29-year-old Dutchman, who was second within the Tour of Flanders two weeks in the past, went solo 19km from the end line on a key cobbled sector to prevail at a document common pace of 45.79kph.
Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), again to aggressive racing after two weeks off due to COVID-19, took second place, one minute 47 seconds behind, after outsprinting Swiss Stefan Kueng (Groupama-FDJ) within the Roubaix velodrome.
“I couldn’t consider it after I went onto the velodrome. I seemed on the opposite facet to see if there have been different guys but it surely was simply me,” Van Baarle, his face lined in a mixture of sweat and dirt, mentioned after a 257.2-km effort.
“I had by no means skilled being the primary man on the velodrome. Last yr I used to be out of the time restrict however this yr it was totally different.
“I had goose bumps after I noticed (group supervisor) Dave (Brailsford) celebrating on the end line, it seemed like he was alone within the velodrome.”
Favourite Mathieu van der Poel was by no means actually within the combine and completed a disappointing ninth, greater than two minutes behind his compatriot, the primary Dutch rider to win Paris-Roubaix since Niki Terpstra in 2014.
Ineos Grenadiers blew up the race with 210km to go, splitting the bunch in crosswinds and leaving the likes of Van Aert and Van der Poel chasing.
REMARKABLE START
“It was not deliberate in any respect but it surely turned out like this. We had been from the gun tremendous centered. That’s what we needed, we didn’t need to chase, we needed to be on the entrance foot and that’s what we did,” mentioned Van Baarle, who was certainly one of many riders to have a puncture on the 54.8km of cobbled sectors.
“From that second I knew we might have an excellent likelihood as a result of we spent much less power than anybody else.”
Kueng mentioned “the way in which the race unfolded” and “huge enchancment on materials” defined the typical pace of the race.
Van Baarle caught up with a number one trio of Slovenia’s Matej Mohoric, Belgians Yves Lampaert and Tom Devriendt with 25km to go.
He waited for his second, six kilometres additional down the street, to speed up on the cobbled sector of Camphin en Pevele and solely Mohoric appeared ready to observe.
Yet the Bahrain Victorious rider, who had been spectacular up to then, misplaced contact with Van Baarle, who shook his head in disbelief as he hit the wood boards of the velodrome for the final 750 metres.
It capped a outstanding begin to the season by Ineos Grenadiers, every week after Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski received the Amstel Gold Race.
The British outfit have 18 wins this yr.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Toby Davis)
