Paris-Roubaix 2021

The road

At the start

An October Roubaix, and rain forecast

Paris-Roubaix in October, two and a half years after the last one was run, and the forecast has been the story all week: showers since Friday, and no edition ridden in the wet since 2002. Philippe Gilbert defends the title he took at 36 and is now 39. Mathieu van der Poel makes his debut on a troublesome back; Van Aert comes a week after losing the Worlds at home.

How it was won

1. 195 km to go

   Arenberg in the mud

   The first wet Paris-Roubaix in a quarter of a century plunges into the forest, and the trench is no longer cobbles but a strip of black slime between the trees. Riders slither, unclip, and go down; those who stay upright come out the far side unrecognisable.

2. 271 km to go

   Van der Poel's first hammer-blow

   Fresh from a bike change, Van der Poel attacks the moment the race hits Tilloy. Haussler, Lampaert and Declercq grab his wheel; his cornering alone burns off all but Lampaert, and by the end of the sector he is riding alone through the spray.

3. 354 km to go

   Van Avermaet goes down

   A former winner crashes with two others on the slick pavé of sector 12. Ahead, Moscon is riding the race of his life and stretching his lead while Van Aert, teammate-less and unaided by QuickStep, slips a minute adrift.

4. 449 km to go

   Mons-en-Pévèle

   Three kilometres of five-star cobbles under standing water. Moscon enters with 1:08 in hand and looks, for a while, like a man about to win Paris-Roubaix alone.

5. 527 km to go

   Moscon's race turns over

   A puncture has already cost him half his advantage. Now he falls on sector 7, and by the time he is up and moving the lead is nine seconds. The chasers can see him.

6. 620 km to go

   Camphin-en-Pévèle

   Moscon claws the gap back out to 21 seconds and hope flickers. Behind him Boivin crashes and a race motorbike has to be dumped into the verge to avoid him, before an enormous turn from Vermeersch — a 22-year-old in his first Roubaix — cuts the deficit to eleven.

7. 717 km to go

   Carrefour de l'Arbre

   Van der Poel accelerates the instant he touches the sector and only Colbrelli and Vermeersch can live with it. They swallow Moscon with 16km left, and the Italian's day dissolves into the mud behind them. Colbrelli counters immediately — an Italian sprinter, on his Roubaix debut, attacking on the cruellest cobbles in cycling.

8. 8At the line

   The Roubaix velodrome

   Three filthy riders enter the concrete bowl and Colbrelli comes off the final banking first, then collapses onto the track screaming. Vermeersch takes second from a breakaway that began 250km earlier; Van der Poel, beaten, is third.

The result