Paris-Roubaix 2026, one day monument, April 12

[ChasingPotatoes]

yeah, but it doesn't explain the difference. When van Aert punctured, Visma was #1 car, because UAE was still coming back from behind.

The UAE car passed before WvA got going again. I don't know what other cars passed / were in that convoy but it seems to me WvA all cars aheard, while Pog got going while some cars were still passing, so more of a ride in between the cars for Pog. And also just a quicker bike change, due to Pog's change 'announced' by a slow flat while WvA had a quicker complete flat, also on cobbles vs. Pog on asphalt.

 

[Unchained]

Can someone help we understand one thing: I was confused by it at the time, but thought maybe there will be explanations after, but i only got more confused. Van Aert punctured pretty close to the same time as Pogacar did (maybe 2-3min after) how was he so far behind him (i mean that can be explained by Pogacars change being more planned and all, but still) Pogacar had such a super easyy stroll back, while van Aert was really struggling to come back and he himself admitted he was worried his race is over there cause it was really hard for him to come back, so it wasnt any finessing or something like that. Did the entire group just wait for Pogacar and stepped on it when he was back and leave van Aert behind? Or did Pogacar himself drive it, despite being allowed back for more or less free? I guess the cars played a huge role aswell? I guess Pogacars change was so quick that he never left the convoy, while van Aerts was more messy and he was on open road... anyway it didnt strike me as particularly fair in the moment, but maybe im reading it wrong. I dont have access to a vod right now to watch it again and my memory might be blurry

Anyone can make out exactly what and how that happened: Pogacars puncture being a complete nonevent (just the last one mind you) while it was almost race losign for van Aert despite it happening at around the same time.

Pogacar had 3 punctures according to his interview. MvdP had a double puncture on his starting bike, took teammates bike with incompatible pedals, meanwhile teammate replaced front wheel on his original bike and he took that bike, rode a few meters and got another puncture. Wout Van Aert's bike change antics were timed with more luck.

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

Elegant statements.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2043626132558225908

View: https://x.com/LeGruppetto/status/2043626132558225908?s=20

 

[harrybo]

What a great day we had watching the race on telly/tnt, it was magic, and the best result I could of hoped for too. There was only one downside to the coverage, it was when the camera,s went back to the studio, you could see that there tears of joy on everyones faces, well that was everyone apart from Sean the king Kelly, he sitting there showing no emotion whatsover, what a killjoy, I was disgusted with him. Granted he may of been king on the bike , but in the studio the blokes time has come , he a dead loss and needs replaced. As a fellow Irishman it pains me to write this, i,ve spoke to several of my chums and they feel the same way, Sean youre past yer sell by...get on yer bike

 

[pastronef]

What a great day we had watching the race on telly/tnt, it was magic, and the best result I could of hoped for too. There was only one downside to the coverage, it was when the camera,s went back to the studio, you could see that there tears of joy on everyones faces, well that was everyone apart from Sean the king Kelly, he sitting there showing no emotion whatsover, what a killjoy, I was disgusted with him. Granted he may of been king on the bike , but in the studio the blokes time has come , he a dead loss and needs replaced. As a fellow Irishman it pains me to write this, i,ve spoke to several of my chums and they feel the same way, Sean youre past yer sell by...get on yer bike

no, you can see him smiling, grinning, the moment WVA wins. if you say that, it means you don't know him, his ways, his character. you don't need to shout and act wild. Kelly is class

 

[tobydawq]

What a great day we had watching the race on telly/tnt, it was magic, and the best result I could of hoped for too. There was only one downside to the coverage, it was when the camera,s went back to the studio, you could see that there tears of joy on everyones faces, well that was everyone apart from Sean the king Kelly, he sitting there showing no emotion whatsover, what a killjoy, I was disgusted with him. Granted he may of been king on the bike , but in the studio the blokes time has come , he a dead loss and needs replaced. As a fellow Irishman it pains me to write this, i,ve spoke to several of my chums and they feel the same way, Sean youre past yer sell by...get on yer bike

How can anyone think it should be 'could of'?

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

Commentators must be impartial.

 

[tobydawq]

Commentators must be impartial.

Why?

 

[HashRouge]

What a great day we had watching the race on telly/tnt, it was magic, and the best result I could of hoped for too. There was only one downside to the coverage, it was when the camera,s went back to the studio, you could see that there tears of joy on everyones faces, well that was everyone apart from Sean the king Kelly, he sitting there showing no emotion whatsover, what a killjoy, I was disgusted with him. Granted he may of been king on the bike , but in the studio the blokes time has come , he a dead loss and needs replaced. As a fellow Irishman it pains me to write this, i,ve spoke to several of my chums and they feel the same way, Sean youre past yer sell by...get on yer bike

This is the daftest comment I've seen on this forum, and that's saying something. Kelly is a great commentator, and was clearly happy that WvA won.

 

[Netserk]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIpgTEHmJHg

 

[pastronef]

4 wins in Roubaix for Cervelo (men race)

2006-2007-2011-2026

2 with Shimano, 2 with Sram
2 with Bell, 2 with Giro

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

Why?

For being fans, there are forums and social media. A tv broadcast is for everyone, whether you're a fan of one team or a rider or none.

If you're a fan of MVDP, why do you have to watch a broadcast that's cheering for Van Aert? And even if you are a Van Aert fan, it's best to watch something neutral without bias.
But above all because if neutrality is lost, races are commented on with bias.

Right here you can see the different opinions. Depending on who had won yesterday, the post-race comments would have been different. Either boring or more entertaining, more epic or less epic.
But this is a forum; a professional can't have that bias. They're addressing everyone, not just specific fans.

 

[Sciatic]

So much happened in the race but I can't help thinking:

WvA had his usual share of mechanics (2 flats). So even though he won, he and his team should seriously look at his material / riding, because he always seem to have flats in Roubaix. Watching slo-mo footage going through corners, you see his (32mm Vittoria) tires are always very much into snake-bite territory, especially compared to Pog's 35mm front Conti S-TR. In any other scenario where MvdP and Pog didn't have so many race-defining mechanicals, he would probably have been on the backfoot like in previous years, and have had a much lower chance of winning the race.

But luck was (finally) just a bit more on his side and MvdP and Pog had bigger mishaps. But the biggest mishaps by the 2 main favorites was how they dealt with their mechanicals. There was a lack of sound decision-making and good team management both in case of Pog / UAE and MvdP / Alpecin.

In Pog's case, any DS would have designated all guys with approx. the same bike position as Pog to ride around him and don't move an inch away from him when he has a mishap. Pog was in a train of at least 3 other UAE riders when he flatted (notice he said he felt he had a slow flat in one of his tires and a big one in the other tire when he stopped, so not an option to change wheels or he had to change both), and none of the UAE gang stopped, not even 100 meters up on the road, to help him chase back or quickly switch bikes.
--> Pog should have had (ALL of) his team mates wait immediately, not just after 5 minutes / a lot of hesitation,... And he should have had a bike from a team mate, immediately. I'm not even going to talk about the amateurish way that Shimano car was on the left side of the road and the other car blocking off the path of other riders almost completely when Pog was stopping on the right, thus blocking the way for every other rider and their uncle.

In MvdP's / Alpecin's case, MvdP should have said 'no' to Philipsen's bike switch offer and tell him to keep riding and thus to wait further up the road (if he wasn't feeling his best). Even with the right pedals, riding on Philipsen's bike was always going to be a serious disadvantage for MvdP on Arenberg. He should always have resorted to Del Grosso for either a bike change or that front wheel change. The one clutch move in the team at that moment was by Del Grosso changing the front wheel for MvdP while he went for a leisurely walk in the forest.

It was the perfect storm that enabled WvA to ride the whole finale from Arenberg in the best possible position (not in the least thanks to the huge lead-out by Brennan into Arenberg, for once Visma got the positioning 100% right). He also handled his second puncture pretty well (his chase was slow but he was lucky with the asisstance from the Bora riders).
Ofcourse he was on a very good day as he re-took the initiative no more than 5K after chasing back to that front group, and from that moment on, when he followed probably the hardest acceleration of Pog (droppin gPedersen), he was riding in full control, and finished it off in great style.

some random observations:

There were quite a few crashes in Arenberg. I saw footage of Vermeersch who flatted his front tire, lost control and crashed in Arenberg. Such crashes would never have happened with tubulars, just saying.

Changing front / rear wheel like Del Grosso did is easy if you have that little hex. key with handle that's standard on many bikes these days (like Giant has it standard, Canyon also maybe)? It surely helps to quickly change a wheel with your team mate.

I can't help but think that neutral service is contraproductive. They often ride in the way of the race, can't seem to get the right wheel, or riders simply don't want / trust their wheels / bikes? I read the neutral service bikes have some set up identically for the top riders (so one set up for e.g. Pog, another for MvdP etc). Pog rode a Shimano bike with the same saddle height / reach / drop etc. So all in all that shouldn't have been that bad of a bike, but still, I always hear complaints about shimano wheels with tires at way too high pressure etc.

Christophe Roodhooft is obviously seriously annoyed with the pedal incompatibility issue in his team. I wonder if he even knew the cleats weren't compatible (you can have the knowledge about riders using a prototype pedal but you could assume cleats are compatible if you haven't tried changing bikes before). He also said that, for the first time, no guys with wheels were allowed half way Arenberg. I honestly don't understand why on the one place where you could really use a spare wheel, guys with wheels aren't allowed.

I’m glad you brought up the UAE car stopping in the middle of a cobbled sector forcing something like 50 riders to slow, stop, or dismount to get through there.

 

[Sciatic]

I think people tend to judge Pogacar fans by the two or three members of the forum who shout the loudest. There are a lot of us who are much quieter about it and don't think he needs to win every race. I've mentioned before that he is the reason I got into cycling, but that was during the 2022 Tour de France, when he was getting beaten up by Visma. I prefer the version of Pogacar that doesn't win everything, and was delighted that Wout won yesterday. But then I might be unusual (going by this forum!), because I like pretty much everyone in the peloton. Apart from Tiberi, of course.

Well put!

 

[RobertCrawley]

Pogacar had 3 punctures according to his interview. MvdP had a double puncture on his starting bike, took teammates bike with incompatible pedals, meanwhile teammate replaced front wheel on his original bike and he took that bike, rode a few meters and got another puncture. Wout Van Aert's bike change antics were timed with more luck.

Bad luck for Matthew. But I also think bad planning with the pedals meant that he couldn’t have a teammate’s bike at a crucial moment. That may well have cost him an opportunity to be at the front with Wout and Tadej. No one to blame but themselves.

 

[Sciatic]

It seems like there was a record number of flat tires this year, especially for the favorites. There must be a reason for that, since the roads were mostly dry. All the new knowledge about tires and the kilojoules saved are wasted on flat tires.

My hypothesis is that maxing out tyre width is not such a great idea if you can't get enough clearance between tyre and the frame. Tires today also have a box-like profile instead of a round one, which could cause more sidewall tears.

I doubt tire companies would want to see this, but it sure would be interesting to see a summary analysis of all the flats yesterday to get a since of how many were inch flats vs whatever or kind (sidewall damage, etc).

 

[Sciatic]

no breakaway. it still baffles me. that's why a rainy-muddy Roubaix is needed. so that teams get scattered and can't control like yesterday. Modern Adventure had a chance of their life to be in the breakaway, and the mad speed of the peloton didn't allow it. tehy tried, as did the pro-conti teams, but to no avail.

That is a really noticeable change for the big races.

 

[Sciatic]

It was an interview given at the height of emotion, a lot of misfortune and pain and whatever else all coming out in one glorious day of redemption; I personally find it a bit silly to be parsing Wout’s words from the heat of the moment.

Yes, in addition Wout was speaking in English in that interview not his native language. Yet that is the standard English usage of “over” in a phrase like that. It’s equivalent to “in front of” or “beat.” It does not mean over-powered or dominate or anything of the kind.

 

[Sciatic]

Can someone help we understand one thing: I was confused by it at the time, but thought maybe there will be explanations after, but i only got more confused. Van Aert punctured pretty close to the same time as Pogacar did (maybe 2-3min after) how was he so far behind him (i mean that can be explained by Pogacars change being more planned and all, but still) Pogacar had such a super easyy stroll back, while van Aert was really struggling to come back and he himself admitted he was worried his race is over there cause it was really hard for him to come back, so it wasnt any finessing or something like that. Did the entire group just wait for Pogacar and stepped on it when he was back and leave van Aert behind? Or did Pogacar himself drive it, despite being allowed back for more or less free? I guess the cars played a huge role aswell? I guess Pogacars change was so quick that he never left the convoy, while van Aerts was more messy and he was on open road... anyway it didnt strike me as particularly fair in the moment, but maybe im reading it wrong. I dont have access to a vod right now to watch it again and my memory might be blurry

Anyone can make out exactly what and how that happened: Pogacars puncture being a complete nonevent (just the last one mind you) while it was almost race losign for van Aert despite it happening at around the same time.

I never saw a shot of Pog’s chase back to the front on that occassion, I’m not sure they showed it?

 

[Sciatic]

Not to be overly nitpicky here - but still slightly - but Juniors are actually a few years older than 10.
(Besides, is 20 years really "several decades"?)

You’re entering murky water if trying to debate how many of something constitutes “several”🤪

 

[Sciatic]

Forgot to check again yesterday, but it was not a replay - Ballerini somehow indeed ended up in the ditch twice.

Not that’s talent !

 

[Sciatic]

Breakaways just meant favourites are gping quite easy for more than one hour and keeping the team. Yesterday was a full gas race form the begining and everybody was at the end at his place according to strenght , skills for the race and luck. There is no problems with breaks, but the race has more level like yesterday

Taxis, I had forgotten how potentially entertaining it can be to decifer some of your comments. But I’m joking, and glad to see you joining in again

 

[Taxus4a]

So apparently, "al dente" Pogi had a flat tire so could n't sprint and it's all Visma's and Alpecin's fault for not stopping when Pogi had to change bikes. There you go!

yes, half the bike was broken and he had stomack problems..other eay everybody know that he is much better than Van Aert for a flat and has a better sprint than him...crazy to heard that. I have just heard UAE Car, Baldato said Pogacar can beat anybody after a hard race...doesnt he thing Pogacar is more afected at Paris Roubaix than Van Aert? Dont he think Van Aert is an sprinter who has wopn massive sprint at le Tour?? Who the helll thy think is Van Aert or how the hell thy think is Pogacar? Superman?? No for a flat route, not for a flat ITT againts Remco, ans so on...

 

[Sciatic]

Elegant statements.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2043626132558225908

View: https://x.com/LeGruppetto/status/2043626132558225908?s=20

Great comment from the champ! Also smart

 

[topcat]

Should they get rid of the cobbles and put some hills in Paris Roubaix? After all, we all want the strongest to win.