Paris-Roubaix 2026, one day monument, April 12

[Samu Cuenca]

Spaghetti legs in the velodrome
Pog said

Still better than my sausage fingers.

 

[Extinction]

Pog said he was tired in the last part of the race with Wout, from all the chasing he had to do before, and knew it was mission impossible to drop Wout at that point.

 

[fenns]

If you take out the waiting for mechanicals MVDP rode this race the fastest by about a minute

 

[Offline]

MVDP was by far the strongest today and Pogacar second. But bad luck

 

[E_F_]

Spaghetti legs in the velodrome
Pog said

Moms-en-Spaghetti

 

[canina82]

Exactly as he should have done. Sandbag a bit, make Pog work, beat him in the sprint. Masterclass

Exactly. Pogacar rode like an amateur and Wout was very smart. Cycling is not just about the legs so tactics play a role too and today Wout rode very well.

 

[tobydawq]

Tbh I completely lost interest once it was clear that all the mechanicals weren't going to have any impact and it was just between two riders and teams that I have zero interest in seeing win, but congratulations to van Aert for finally getting the proverbial monkey off his back and finally winning that cobblestone that had been missing from his résumé for years.

How magnanimous of you to extend your congratulations.

Good thing you have the Vietnamese GT going on to watch instead.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Well done Wout

The Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day.

 

[Revelation]

The riders are much more mature than the forum though.

WvA “great to ride with the world champion upfront”

Pogacar “we shared the work quite well”

Meanwhile the forum - rider XYZ is so stupid…!!!

I mean it's quite a big problem when you have to completely ignore 50+% of the active posters on the forum on matters involving Pogacar, because they are completely led by their emotions.

 

[Brullnux]

The riders are much more mature than the forum though.

WvA “great to ride with the world champion upfront”

Pogacar “we shared the work quite well”

Meanwhile the forum - rider XYZ is so stupid…!!!

I also don't really think either made clear mistakes. Pogacar was in a tough spot, wanted to win but didn't have the legs to drop him and would have obviously lost in a big group. He could have maybe worked less but it was high risk not very high reward.

Van Aert won, so not much else to say about that.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Teunissen Top 10

 

[Stelvio]

If you take out the waiting for mechanicals MVDP rode this race the fastest by about a minute

It would be a long day if the race was neutralized every time someone punctured.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Teunissen Top 10

Great job with that attack at 160 k to go, great panache and grinta rider

 

[Gratemans]

The riders are much more mature than the forum though.

WvA “great to ride with the world champion upfront”

Pogacar “we shared the work quite well”

Meanwhile the forum - rider XYZ is so stupid…!!!

I think they both tried to do _some_ of the work but not too much. Exactly like they should. Neither did anything wrong imo.

Also, like QueenStagaire (?) said, it was pretty hard to see who actually was strongest up untill they hit the Velodrome. Some great acting by both. I love that stuff.

 

[Sciatic]

The chasers should be able to take advantage of the 500 motorbikes between them and the two leaders.

That could be be an underestimate!

 

[Jan the Man]

Exactly. Pogacar rode like an amateur and Wout was very smart. Cycling is not just about the legs so tactics play a role too and today Wout rode very well.

However Pog rode in the finale he was not beating Wout in this sprint. He was spent having been the aggressor and riding to try and drop Wout and Wout is an immeasurably better sprinter than Pog in normal conditions

 

[canina82]

Some day they will race PR under 5 hours...

 

[KoopaCycling]

Well but the Laporte card, as you say, was indeed silly - I don’t think it mattered. Laporte was not going to win the sprint from the group, the chance to win for the team was always way higher with WvA from a 2 man group.

But Pogacar did too much indeed. I just think its independent of Laporte.

If that's true, that's vindication of my belief that you do not ride with Pogacar or only take pretend pulls.
Hopefully more people start doing this. No point in doing equal work with the strongest rider.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

I think they both tried to do _some_ of the work but not too much. Exactly like they should. Neither did anything wrong imo.

Also, like QueenStagaire (?) said, it was pretty hard to see who actually was strongest up untill they hit the Velodrome. Some great acting by both. I love that stuff.

Don‘t think I said that but thanks for guessing that I did, it‘s a good take

 

[fenns]

It would be a long day if the race was neutralized every time someone punctured.

of course - that's the nature of the race. I doubt MVDP feels too bad you're going to run out of luck sometime.

 

[RobertCrawley]

Just turned into the Paris Roubaix Femmes. A terrible crash with riders crying loudly on the ground. One rider was on the ground face down and not moving.

 

[Unchained]

What a great race in every way. Real teaching moment for young riders about TT skills, composure and learning to chase. Dozens of riders either eating it or having bike issues. Visma rode a race for the ages, awesome win for Wout and the camera following his emotional reaction with fans, family and teammates was fantastic. Pogacar really raced awesome. Top ten were all well deserving of the honor.. Politt and Laporte were lights out good today.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Pretty impressive win from Wout - if you'd have told me before the race it was going to him vs Pog in the velodrome after the fastest race in history I'd say it was going to be pretty close in the sprint but it was man vs boy. He'd have given MvDP a race too on that evidence.

Van der Poel didn't handle the punctures well and that might just have been the difference between him contesting the finish or not.

TBF, his puncture couldn't have happened at a worse time, and in the heat of everything, Philipsen trying to give him a bike with prototype pedals, that wouldn't work with his cleats, was a bad call. He came closer than anyone else in the peloton would have (bar Pogacar), to getting back to the front.

 

[tobydawq]

Wout van Asterix is so lucky Pogacar had that slip early in Carefour de l Arbre. Decided the race.

I don't think I have ever seen a post of yours that I liked. But the final hour is beating all records.

 

[Sciatic]

Briefly coming out of forum retirement to say it would be nice if wout wins

Chapeau!