00:00Pogacar is about to go, and Wout van Aert goes with him immediately.
00:07The Paris-Roubaix route has been the same since 1977,
00:11with the riders heading out from Compiègne to brave the cobbled sections en route to the famous Velodrome.
00:16But the 122nd edition of this classic promised to be something extra special.
00:21Tadej Pogacar and Macha van der Poel have gone pedal to pedal in recent weeks.
00:25Pogacar taking the tour of Flanders van der Poel than Milan San Remo.
00:29That meant their duel on the hell of a north was highly anticipated.
00:32It's one of those special races where you work for a winter,
00:36so I think we are ready with the team to try and make it a success again.
00:40I think I always try to race on instinct, but especially in Roubaix,
00:44there are so many things that can happen on every cobbled section,
00:48so you just have to try to be in the race and try to stay in front and hopefully no punctures.
00:55Pogacar had participated in the junior version of the race,
00:59but this was his eagerly awaited senior debut on the cobbles that he'd already had a taste of on the Tour de France.
01:05It means a challenge and I'm looking forward to that one because I trained a little bit this year on the cobbles.
01:12I know them since I've been a junior, but I have not so good memories from them,
01:17but let's hope we can create some nicer memories this year around.
01:22We are here to win the team and we have very good, strong riders.
01:28The motivation is super high. The guys are ready and I think me as well,
01:33so we will try to fight for a win, of course.
01:37It certainly wasn't going to be a two-horse race though.
01:40Mats Pedersen finished runner-up on the Tour of Flanders.
01:43Wiesma-Lisebike's Dylan van Baale is a former Paris-Roubaix winner
01:47and teammate Fout van Aert has finished on the podium twice.
01:51I don't know if I'm in the shape of my life, but I'm definitely in the top shape
01:57and I haven't been better ever in the Classic, so I'm in a good position.
02:04Roubaix is a different race than Flanders, for example.
02:08A lot more guys can go for the win. It's unpredictable.
02:14Yeah, if everything comes together, then we have a good chance again.
02:18The beginning of the season was complicated for me, I think.
02:22It was hard to find the right legs in the classics and from Dwarves of Flanders on,
02:28I felt like myself again and for sure it was good for the morale
02:33to be in a final again in Tour of Flanders with the best riders.
02:38There were 259 kilometers for the peloton from Compiègne to Roubaix
02:42with 55.3 kilometers of cobble sections that could make all the difference.
02:47They start at Troisville-à-Hanchy, the first of 30 sections,
02:51including the famous Arenberg Trench and the Carrefour de l'Arbe,
02:55the three crossroads, 17 kilometers from the finish at Roubaix.
02:59Will the iconic velodrome see a sprint finish?
03:01Or will one man break away and get the chance to savor the moment
03:04as the winner of the 2025 Paris-Roubaix?
03:07It wasn't until the peloton had sped over some 40 kilometers at more than 50 kilometers an hour
03:15that the first group managed to break away.
03:17Led by former Spanish champion Oya Las Cano, the group also featured Lotto's Jasper de Bust,
03:23Norwegian champion Markus Hörlgaard and Kim Hayduk of Ineos Grenadiers.
03:2960 kilometers into the race and the gap to the lead group was more than two minutes,
03:34which meant it was time for the teams of Pogacar and van der Poel to take matters in hand in the peloton.
03:40Nonetheless, the gap continued to grow and even crept over three minutes
03:44before the peloton started to eat into it with the first cobble section looming.
03:51The approach of the first major difficulty of the day meant the peloton got jumpy.
03:55Maciej Mohoric was caught up in a crash, as was van der Poel.
04:00Fortunately for them, both men had help to get back into the race.
04:03But with the wind at their backs, the breakaway group's lead was back to more than three minutes
04:07as they tackled the first cobble section.
04:10Some will be going forward, some will be washed away over the coming hours.
04:17But as we turn this corner, we get ready because we welcome you to hell.
04:293.02, 163.2 kilometers to go.
04:33Now we start to rumble the pave beckons for the peloton.
04:38Kind of nice and dusty this first sector.
04:42Three stars, kind of right in the middle.
04:45A little bit of grass left and right and no real indication of the rain of overnight.
04:51Falls are a big factor on the Paris-Roubaix and the route is no respecter of reputations.
04:56Jasper Philipsen, second in each of the last two editions, found that out the hard way.
05:00And it's not only the riders that suffer.
05:03Filippo Ganna dropped back due to a mechanical problem on the first cobble section.
05:08Van Aert did too.
05:12Pogacar van der Poel and Pedersen came through it safely however.
05:16And while Ganna was a minute off the peloton, Van Aert worked his way back into contention.
05:21Back down the course, Lidl Trek took charge of the peloton's pace on the cobbles towards Saint-Pitain.
05:30But with less than 150 kilometers to the finish, the breakaway still had more than two minutes in hand.
05:35Ganna and former winner Van Bala were in a group a further minute behind the race favourites.
05:43Having rattled along at more than 50 kilometers an hour, the pace then dropped a little, which gave some the chance to close.
05:50Ganna and Philipsen were among them, with the cobbles at Havelui almost in view.
05:54It was in the cobble section that the race favourites started to make serious moves.
06:01Pedersen and Pogacar attacked and the lead group started to thin out.
06:06Some 20 riders headed towards the Valais forest as the breakaway was being reeled in.
06:12The tempo was at its peak as the race favourites headed towards the famous Arenberg trench.
06:18Van der Poel tried his luck once again in the Arenberg trench as everyone tried to hang on to his back wheel.
06:29With the pace high, the breakaway group were picked off, leaving Van der Poel, Pogacar and Pedersen at the front of the race in a lead group of some 15 riders.
06:38Van Aert and Stefan Kung, fifth of the last two years, were not amongst them.
06:48Van der Poel certainly wasn't going to wait for them.
06:52He stepped up the pace again and had Alpersin de Koenig teammate Philipsen to help him as he split the lead group apart.
07:00World champion Pogacar was there though, along with Pedersen and Stefan Bissegger.
07:05Behind them, a group of 10 including Van Aert and Wiesma-Lise-Bike teammate Matthew Brennan kept up the pursuit.
07:14Lady Luck also has her say on who emerges unscathed from the Paris-Roubaix.
07:2070km from the line, she clearly wasn't going to make it Pedersen's day.
07:24Denmark's former world champion suffering a puncture, and that was the cue for Pogacar to step on the gas.
07:31Van der Poel and Philipsen stayed in touch, but Bissegger's bike gave up on him,
07:36leaving the three riders out in front with 68km to go and still 14 potentially perilous cobble sections to negotiate.
07:44With the line edging closer, the front three were sizing each other up.
07:48With 46km left, Van der Poel made a move.
07:50Pogacar followed and counter-attacked.
07:54That all proved too much for Philipsen, leaving just two riders in contention.
07:59As the two heavyweights of World Cycling headed to the finish, Pogacar was the one to make the decisive error.
08:06Accelerating just a fraction too much into a tight corner, Van der Poel didn't need asking twice.
08:11The gap was around 20 seconds even before Pogacar was forced to change his bike, meaning only Van der Poel himself, or bad luck, could deny him victory.
08:22With Pogacar looking safe for second, the race was on for the final place on the podium.
08:29The former Paris-Roubaix runner-up and Pogacar's teammate Florian Vermeersch was in the mix, but so too were Pedersen and Fanat.
08:38There was a little scare for Van der Poel at the tree crossroads, but he still had more than a minute in hand with less than 20km left.
08:45As the former World Champion headed towards the Velodrome, the current wearer of the rainbow jersey, Pogacar, had given up the chase.
08:55That left Van der Poel to celebrate as he closed in on a third successive Paris-Roubaix win.
09:02This rider is the man who conquers the 122nd edition of Paris-Roubaix.
09:16The king of Roubaix, the triple, Mathieu van der Poel, wins the 122nd Paris-Roubaix.
09:24Today, Pogacar taking second place on his debut in the race, and it was a sprint for third.
09:35Pedersen eventually edging out Fanat to claim third for the second year in a row.
09:40So, Mathieu van der Poel taking the 2025 Paris-Roubaix to become only the third man in the history of the race to win it three years in succession.
09:57It means he's now won eight monuments of cycling. That's as many as Pogacar.
10:02It means a lot. It's such a hard race and I was really suffering.
10:10Too bad that I had this mistake in the corner.
10:14I just had to go for it, but it was still quite far until the finish line.
10:20It was really hard, especially with the last two sectors with the headwind.
10:24I was really struggling, but I'm happy to make it to the finish line.
10:28Van der Poel, Pogacar and Pedersen, the podium finishers for 2025.
10:35Van Aert and Vermeersch rounding out the top five.
10:38A special mention too for Markus Holgaard and Jonas Rutsch who were in the breakaway group
10:43and managed to hang on for a top ten finish.
10:45But the day and the victory belong once again to van der Poel, the undisputed king of the hell of the north.
10:51of the north.
10:52of the north.
