Roubaix Race Report: At the end of a chaotic Paris-Roubaix, Dylan van Baarle crossed to a leading group and then soloed the last 20 kilometres to the finish in Roubaix. Wout van Aert took second place in the sprint form Stefan Küng, Tom Devriendt and Matej Mohorič. The fastest Paris-Roubaix in history – 45.8kph.
INEOS Grenadiers first win in Paris Roubaix thanks to Dylan van Baarle
Dylan van Baarle won the 2022 Paris-Roubaix 2022. The 29-year-old Dutchman from INEOS Grenadiers crossed the line solo at the Vélodrome in Roubaix after an extremely entertaining and exciting edition of the ‘Hell of the North’, breaking away from a leading group of four at Camphin-en-Pévèle.
What will Wout van Aert and Jumbo-Visma do today? “A big question mark. I’m obviously not at the level I was before. The stars don’t look right to me, that’s for sure”
Parcours:
The Paris-Roubaix 2022 route is almost identical to last year’s: 257 kilometres, 30 unpaved sectors, which is 54.8 kilometres of cobblestones, 300 metres more than in October. The only change is near Cambrésis, early in the race. The first 100 kilometres are on asphalt roads, the first cobbles are in Troisvilles to Inchy. The Forest of Wallers, (Trouée d’Arenberg), 2.3 kilometres is a 5* section 95 kilometres from the finish. Two more 5*: 50 kilometres from the finish Mons-en-Pévèle and in the Carrefour de l’Arbre, 17 kilometres before the velodrome.
Map and profile
From the Carrefour de l’Arbre, the route heads over the last sections of the day, those of Gruson, Hem and Roubaix, to the finish on the velodrome de Roubaix.
Mathieu van der Poel spoke before the start of Paris-Roubaix. Does he prefer last year’s weather conditions? “For the technical skills I prefer an edition like last year with the heavy rain, but in general I prefer to race in the warm weather like now.” Last year? “My legs were really just completely empty at the end. Hopefully I will have good legs this year when I get to the Vélodrome. I kind of have a love-hate relationship with this race. I really like riding here but it’s such a tough race. It is very difficult to win here, it cannot be compared to other races. Do I still have enough in the tank? Yes, sure, I’m still hungry. I haven’t done many races after my injury.”
257 kilometres in hell to go
The first hour was very active, as many riders wanted to be in the ‘break of the day’. No group managed to get away, although Laurent Pichon (Arkéa-Samsic), Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost) and Aleksandr Riabushenko (Astana Qazaqstan) did take a gap, but they didn’t stay ahead for long. After 50 kilometres the cross-wind caused the echelons to form
First crash of the day for Clement Davy
INEOS Grenadiers pulled the peloton to pieces and had their entire squad on the front, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl also had some riders in the first group. The biggest absentees were Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Stefan Küng, Kasper Asgreen and Mads Pedersen. The lead quickly grew to 1 minute, despite the chasing work of the domestiques.
The race split into two big pelotons before the cobbles
At the front were Yves Lampaert, Florian Sénéchal, Filippo Ganna, Dylan van Baarle, Ben Turner, Matej Mohorič, Mike Teunissen, Timo Roosen, Stefan Bissegger, Sebastian Langeveld and also former winner Niki Terpstra. The Dutchman went solo for a while, but was caught. Halfway through the race, the leading group consisted of about fifty riders, which was almost 2 minutes ahead of the group with Van der Poel and Van Aert.
The full INEOS-Grenadiers team were on the front of the first group
Jens Reynders (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) attacked from the leading group, but was caught due to a puncture. Ganna had bad luck for the second time, but the Italian favourite managed to return very quickly. Leading up to Wallers, the chase group had come a lot closer as the co-operation in the front group was not good.
The first cobbles and the dust
Mohorič, Davide Ballerini, Casper Pedersen, Tom Devriendt and Laurent Pichon managed to pull away from the front group. Behind; 103 kilometres from the finish, a regrouping followed, as Van der Poel and Van Aert pulled the peloton back together. With a lead of 50 seconds on Nils Politt and Connor Swift, the five started the very tough cobbles of Wallers. The favourites group followed at 1:40.
Wout van Aert in the second group
In Wallers, the race exploded. Ballerini and Pedersen broke away from the leading group and Van Aert was absent from the favourites. He had bad luck, had to change bikes and return again to the favourites group. This required a lot of work, but some Jumbo-Visma riders slowed the race and Van Aert was able to return to the peloton with Van der Poel and Ganna. They were still at 2 minutes from Mohorič, Devriendt and Pichon.
Van der Poel in the chase group, but safe
Bad luck for Küng caused a different situation in the peloton, as his team had led the chase. The gap with the Mohorič group increased to 2:30, but that quickly disappeared. The three escapees didn’t ease off and so they could dream as they went into the final. At 57 kilometres out, Nathan Van Hooydonck and Van Aert put in a big acceleration, creating a new top group.
Crash for Arashiro
Van Aert was accompanied by Van Baarle, Van der Poel, Küng, Lampaert, Sénéchal, Jasper Stuyven, Taco van der Hoorn, Adrien Petit, Matteo Trentin, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Ben Turner. That group had a good pace, but Van Baarle managed to escape just before the 5* section of Mons-en-Pévèle. He was caught after the section by Van Aert, Van der Poel and Küng, who was strong on Mons-en-Pévèle and tore the favourites group apart.
The wind was a problem
Quick-Step and TotalEnergies took control
Stuyven, Lampaert, Turner and Petit were able to return, so we had nine pursuers, including the caught Pichon. At 39 kilometres Van Aert punctured and had to change bikes, he managed to return without problem. At the front Mohorič also had a flat tyre, which left Tom Devriendt on his own off the front.
Ganna had a list of mechanical problems
Race fans food
At 28 kilometres, Devriendt was joined by Lampaert and Mohorič (again), and they rode away from the elite group. Van Baarle counter-attacked and joined them on the cobbles of Cysoing-Bourghelles. The four had a 45 second lead over the group behind, where there was little interest in the chase.
Bad luck Jens Reynders (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) as he punctured when he had a solo gap of about 40 seconds
Wallers was the usual chaos
More than 20 kilometres before the finish, Van der Poel’s race seemed to end. He didn’t respond to an attack from Stuyven, Van Aert and Küng and had no help to close that gap. Those three had to close a gap of 30 seconds on the leading group, but bad luck and a bike change for Stuyven didn’t help.
Sanremo winner Matej Mohorič in the leading break
Van Baarle was the best at Champhin-en-Pévèle; he came off the section 7 seconds ahead of Mohorič and Lampaert. Küng and Van Aert followed almost 40 seconds behind Van Baarle.
Mohirič was looking strong, but a puncture ruined his dream
Van Aert wasn’t looking so bad, but there was a puncture for him at the wrong time
The Dutchman started the Carrefour de l’Arbre solo, the last 5* section of this Paris-Roubaix, but had to push on to hold Mohorič and Lampaert off. He succeeded and increased the gap to 20 seconds. Van Aert and Küng were at 55 seconds after the Gruson section and a revived Van der Poel was at 1:20 from Van Baarle.
Mohotič made it back to the front
Yves Lampaert was Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s hope in the final
With a lead of 1 minute, Van Baarle started the Willems-Hem cobbles. Lampaert came into contact with a spectator and fell hard. Mohorič was then joined by Van Aert, Küng and Devriendt, these four would battle for the podium places.
Van Baarle crossed solo to the lead group
Van Baarle with the leaders
For Van Baarle, the victory was in the bag. He rode onto the Roubaix velodrome on his own with a big smile on his face. After the finish he fell into the arms of team boss Dave Brailsford. The sprint for second place was won by Van Aert, who only just got past Küng. Devriendt topped off a strong race with a fourth place.
Then Van Baarle went solo for the win
Mathieu van der Poel was unable to sprint in a chasing group. The Alpecin-Fenix leader finished ninth, more than 2:30 behind Van Baarle.
Second in Flanders, win in Roubaix
Van Aert took the sprint for second place
2022 Paris-Roubaix winner, Dylan van Baarle (INEOS Grenadiers): “It’s unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it when I rode into the Vélodrome. I looked at the other side of the velodrome, but I was all alone. When the support car came to me with Servais Knaven, that’s when I really believed it. It’s really great. This is a monument. Of course I want to win it. To be second in the Tour of Flanders and to win here in Roubaix… I really have no words for it. That was not entirely planned. That’s how it went. We were very focused and we wanted to. We especially didn’t want to chase. We rode with the team up front and from then on I knew we would have a good chance. We would also have wasted less energy in that phase. But I had another puncture, and I think everyone had something, but we kept going and this as a result is great. We wanted to make the race hard and we did. Kwiato (Michal Kwiatkowski) said in the opening phase that I looked very strong and that gave me a lot of confidence. I cannot thank the team enough. We’ve had a great spring so far. We are going to enjoy this. We have worked so hard for this in recent years, but we also had bad luck. And now things are moving in the right direction. The whole team benefits from that.”
2022 Roubaix podium
# More news from Roubaix in EUROTRASH Monday. #
Paris-Roubaix Result:
1. Dylan van Baarle (Ned) INEOS Grenadiers in 5:37:00
2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma at 1:47
3. Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
4. Tom Devriendt (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
5. Matej Mohorič (Slo) Bahrain-Victorious
6. Adrien Petit (Fra) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux at 2:27
7. Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
8. Laurent Pichon (Fra) Arkéa Samsic
9. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix at 2:34
10. Yves Lampaert (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl at 2:59.
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