{"id":1879092,"date":"2026-04-12T11:31:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T08:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1879092"},"modified":"2026-04-12T11:31:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T08:31:05","slug":"wout-van-aert-finally-buries-the-ghosts-to-win-paris-roubaix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1879092","title":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert Finally Buries the Ghosts to Win Paris-Roubaix"},"content":{"rendered":"
Published April 12, 2026 11:31AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Wout van Aert winning Paris-Roubaix \u2014 it was the victory that every bike fan was cheering for Sunday, but no one expected to see.<\/p>\n
The crowd erupted as cycling\u2019s hard-luck Belgian powered into the velodrome alongside Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
After years of close calls, near misses, and downright disasters, Van Aert finally had some luck.<\/p>\n
And packed incredible legs, too.<\/p>\n
After matching Poga\u010dar in the final hour of racing, the pair hit the final corner of Roubaix\u2019s velodrome. Van Aert attacked, and Poga\u010dar had nothing left.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Carrefour, I knew I had a chance,\u201d Van Aert said. \u201cI\u2019ve been chasing this for so long. It\u2019s a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roubaix doesn\u2019t give gifts. And make no mistake, Van Aert had to earn this.<\/p>\n
Two punctures could have ended it, and in any other edition, they would have.<\/p>\n
But this time, his bad luck came early, and Van Aert clawed his way back. He stayed in the race, and he stayed upright.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhat I learned is it is never over in this race, and I showed today,\u201d he\u00a0said. \n\u201cThe second puncture was quite a rough one to come back, it was quite hard to fight back to the group. But I just decided to stick to my plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Closing a circle<\/h2>\nVan Aert get the win he\u2019s been chasing his whole career. <\/span> (Photo: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
For once, fortune didn\u2019t turn against him. Van Aert was the winner of the race he\u2019d been dreaming of.<\/p>\n
He collapsed in tears into his father\u2018s arms and was transported back to the time when he was a youngster dreaming of racing Paris-Roubaix.<\/p>\n
After turning pro, Van Aert was destined to win, not one Roubaix, but many. He was Belgium\u2019s next Tom Boonen, the next big cobblestone superhero.<\/p>\n
But he kept running into Van der Poel, his rival since they were teenagers. And then Poga\u010dar decided he wanted to race the classics.<\/p>\n
It seemed like it would never happen. An injury over the winter seemed like 2026 would be another wash for Van Aert.<\/p>\n
But a strong ride at the Tour of Flanders with fourth behind the climbers gave him quiet confidence for Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I closed a circle,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cI\u2019ve been chasing this for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Others weren\u2019t so lucky.<\/p>\n
In fact, all the \u201cbigs\u201d had some sort of bad luck on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar floundered with a puncture, a broken wheel, and was even forced to ride a Shimano neutral support bike until he could chase back on before the Arenberg.<\/p>\n
And then bad luck would bury Van der Poel in a series of cruel twists on Roubaix\u2019s most unforgiving sector. The three-time winner chased all day, but never regained contact.<\/p>\n
Van Aert rumbled off the Arenberg at the front, and with each passing kilometer, things were looking good just as everyone was bracing for \u201cwhat could happen now?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sprint of dreams<\/h2>\nVan Aert held off Poga\u010dar to win. <\/span> (Photo: Etienne GARNIER \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The kilometers clicked by, and nothing bad happened. After floating off the Carrefour, he started to believe.<\/p>\n
He had rehearsed this moment for years and played every scenario over in his mind.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI planned my sprint already for years. I did this sprint in so many dreams,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore every edition, I knew exactly how I wanted to approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar could only concede and gave well-deserved congratulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWout really deserves this victory, and how he always comes back from all the bad luck, and he never gives up,\u201d Pogacar said. \u201cHe can be a hero to many young kids today.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy legs were not the greatest anymore, and Wout was always on my wheel. I could feel he was strong, and it was not meant to be to drop him, and in the sprint, he was just too strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a final sprint to beat the Merkcx of our times, Van Aert was able to exorcize the demons that have haunted him during his cobblestone career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Andrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Published April 12, 2026 11:31AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270993411-2-scaled.jpg”] Andrew Hood Published April 12, 2026 11:31AM Wout van Aert winning Paris-Roubaix \u2014 it was the victory that every bike fan was cheering for Sunday, but no one expected to see. The crowd erupted as cycling\u2019s hard-luck Belgian powered into the velodrome alongside Tadej Poga\u010dar. After years of close calls, near misses, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1879092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1879092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1879092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1879092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1879092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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