Mathieu van der Poel once again showed that he is one of the best classic bike riders in the sport winning the Paris-Roubaix race for three consecutive years.
It was known that the Paris-Roubaix was a difficult event, with rough roads and cobblestones to overcome. Despite these challenges, van der Poel remained resilient and finished at the top spot once more.
In a social media post shared by Paris-Roubaix, it stated: “🏆🏆🏆 HAT TRICK, HATS OFF @mathieuvanderpoel ! 🏆🏆🏆”
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In the comments, netizens were quick to express their thoughts with one of them writing, “Three Roubaix, one king!”, and another one saying, “Congrats champ!!!! And well done to Pogi as well, what a DUO 💯💯🚴♂️💨”
Making history
The Dutch rider made history by winning the so-called “Hell of the North” three times in a row, a feat achieved by only two other riders–Octave Lapize of France over 100 years ago, and Francesco Moser of Italy in the 1970s.
Van der Poel rode to the finish line alone and won the race with 38 kilometres left after his main rival, Tadej Pogačar, slipped off the road on a bumpy cobbled section. Pogačar, who won this season’s Tour of Flanders, was racing in Paris-Roubaix for the very first time. He finished the race with a minor injury on his wrist, possibly from his watch rubbing, and smiled through the pain as he realised how difficult the race was.
Pogačar hoped to be the first Tour de France champion to win the event, but he couldn’t keep up with van der Poel.
Bottle-throwing during the race
However, something unfortunate happened during the race with 32 kilometres left. Someone in the crowd threw a water bottle at van der Poel. It hit the athlete and made him angry, and it looked like it was done on purpose. He then admitted that this kind of thing must not happen again in cycling.
With this, van der Poel stated: “I hope they identify the person and press charges… throwing objects at riders who are giving their all — this has to stop immediately! Just enjoy the race!”
He added: “I got hit in the face with a bottle at 50 kilometres per hour. That’s enough to break a jaw… We can’t just let that slide.”
Moreover, in a post-race conference, he compared the incident to being hit in the face by a stone. The athlete said: “It doesn’t destroy the fun I had, but it’s not normal… It was a full bottle, maybe half a kilogram, and I was riding at 50kph. It was really like a stone hitting my face.”
“It’s not acceptable…When they throw beer, it’s also not acceptable, but that’s a different story. This is really something we have to take legal action against,” he added.