Paris-Roubaix 2022

The road

At the start

Van Aert cleared, Van der Poel favourite

Wout van Aert is on the start line in Compiègne only because Jumbo-Visma's doctors finally said yes. He won Omloop and dominated E3, then tested positive for COVID-19 and missed the Ronde and Amstel; the team have said all week they would be more cautious than cautious, and he rides in support. Mathieu van der Poel, winner in Flanders a fortnight ago, is the favourite. 257 dry kilometres, thirty sectors of pavé.

How it was won

1. 1113 km to go

   Five jump away on the tarmac

   After Ineos split the race in the crosswinds early on, a brief lull lets Mohorič, Ballerini, Casper Pedersen, Devriendt and Pichon go clear on a stretch of asphalt with 113 kilometres left.

2. 295 km to go

   Into the Trouée d'Arenberg

   Ballerini punctures before the forest, leaving four to hit the five-star cobbles 1:45 clear. Behind them the race finally comes together at the worst possible moment: Van der Poel and Van Aert make contact with the front split, and then the Belgian suffers a mechanical in the middle of the 2.3km sector and has to chase all over again.

3. 345 km to go

   Van Baarle anticipates everybody

   Jumbo-Visma have carved thirty seconds off the leaders through the Orchies sectors and split the peloton again. Van Baarle reads it perfectly, going solo at Auchy-lez-Orchies and riding the five-star Mons-en-Pévèle to within thirty seconds of the front — with Van Aert, Van der Poel and Küng dragged out behind him by the Belgian's counter.

4. 428 km to go

   Regrouping at Cysoing

   Van Aert has punctured before Pont-Thibault and chased back; Mohorič punctured straight after. Devriendt's long spell alone ends when Mohorič attacks across before sector 7, with Lampaert in tow and Van Baarle bridging on the cobbles by sheer force.

5. 518 km to go

   Van Baarle rides away at Camphin-en-Pévèle

   On the four-star sector the Dutchman accelerates and drops the hardy Devriendt, while behind him his own teammate Turner slides out on a cobbled corner. There is no theatre to it, no repeated digs — one sustained effort on the worst surface in cycling, and a gap that never stops growing.

6. 617 km to go

   Alone onto the Carrefour de l'Arbre

   He enters the last decisive sector a few seconds up on Mohorič and Lampaert, the Van Aert chase group thirty seconds back. 2.1km of the most brutal pavé in the race, and by the end of it the question is only how big the margin will be.

7. 77 km to go

   A spectator ends Lampaert's race

   Chasing hard in the company of Mohorič with 7.1km to go, Lampaert clips a spectator applauding from the edge of the road and is thrown down heavily on the tarmac. He is up quickly and restarts on a neutral service bike, but the fall costs him any shot at the podium — he limps into the velodrome tenth, 2:59 down on Van Baarle.

8. 8At the line

   Van Baarle into the velodrome, 1:47 clear

   He rides the last seventeen kilometres alone and enters the Roubaix velodrome with almost two minutes in hand — the biggest winning margin here in decades. Van Aert outsprints Küng for second, a long way back.

The result