Tadej Pogačar finished second at Paris-Roubaix after Wout van Aert beat him in a two-man sprint at the Roubaix velodrome on Sunday.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had set out to win the one Monument still missing from his collection, and he looked in sharp form from the start.
His team helped force the race open with around 150 kilometres left, lifting the pace hard enough to thin out the peloton well before the key cobbled sectors.
Pogačar’s race was then thrown off course by a front-wheel puncture with 120km remaining. He first took a neutral service bike, then swapped back onto his team bike from the car before chasing for around 20km to regain contact with the front group.
He made it back just before the Arenberg Forest, one of the most decisive sections of the race.
There was more disruption behind. Mathieu van der Poel lost time after a double puncture on the cobbles and was left more than two minutes adrift at one stage. He recovered strongly, got back to within half a minute of the leaders, and eventually finished fourth.
The decisive move came with 54km to go on the Auchy-lez-Orchies à Bersée sector.
After more mechanical trouble in the race, including a bike change for Pogačar and a puncture for Van Aert, the pair broke clear and stayed away to the finish.
That left the win to be settled on the track in Roubaix, where Van Aert produced the stronger sprint to take one of cycling’s biggest one-day races.
Van Aert won in 5:16:52. Pogačar came home second, while Jasper Stuyven was third, 13 seconds back.
For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, it was another major result in one of the sport’s hardest races, even if Pogačar was left one place short of victory.
