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Wout van Aert\u2019s heart-melting victory over Tadej Poga\u010dar at Paris-Roubaix was born from years of agony, frustration, and a perfectly timed bunny hop.<\/p>\n
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Speaking to fans Monday during a virtual group ride, Van Aert said his redemptive victory at the Hell of the North earlier this month had been gestating for 9 months.<\/p>\n
The moment Van Aert gapped Poga\u010dar on the slick stones of the Montmartre last summer in the final stage of the Tour de France\u00a0was the moment he realized he\u2019s still got it.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat victory changed everything,\u201d Van Aert said of his drizzly, grizzly triumph last July. \u201cUntil then, I was convinced that Poga\u010dar and Van der Poel would always be difficult to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n Iconic victory on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es quashed all the doubts.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that many factors played a role that day \u2013 I was much fresher than Pogacar, for example,\u201d Van Aert said. \u201cBut by beating him, I realized that I was still capable of winning against these riders if all the conditions were right.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a new mindset was born,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As Van Aert said, it changed everything.<\/p>\n Many had feared the Flemish favorite\u2019s best days were over.<\/p>\n The big Belgian admitted over the winter he had feared it, too.<\/p>\n \u201cAt some point, with my injuries and the setbacks, I swapped more to the idea of taking it a bit more easy, to avoid risks or danger, to take an easier schedule, to change goals,\u201d he told\u00a0The Athletic<\/em>.<\/p>\n COVID before Flanders in 2022. A terribly timed puncture in Roubaix 2023. Devastating injuries in spring and<\/em> summer 2024. Poga\u010dar\u2019s insatiable hunger for cobblestone dominance.<\/p>\n Van Aert\u2019s lifelong dream to win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix was becoming a pipe dream.<\/p>\n Heck, he couldn\u2019t even catch a lucky break at Dwars Door Vlaanderen.<\/p>\n Filling the finish line photo on the Champs-\u00c9lysees clicked a switch.<\/p>\n After he dropped Poga\u010dar in Paris, Van Aert came into the spring classics with new belief and a clear mind. Not even a fractured ankle in winter could cloud his cobblestone vision.<\/p>\n Van Aert said Monday he gained some supernatural sixth sense as he steamed across 55km of pav\u00e9 in the fastest Roubaix on record.<\/p>\n \u201cHyperfocus took over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He survived a puncture setback and withstood Poga\u010dar\u2019s fiercest attacks. He saw the race in slow motion.<\/p>\n It made the 2-up sprint a formality.<\/p>\n Pogi was fried by a bike change fiasco, and Van Aert was locked in.<\/p>\n \u201cI was on Poga\u010dar\u2019s wheel, where I wanted to be. I didn\u2019t doubt myself anymore, and I was ready to sprint,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like I was no longer aware of what was happening around me.\u201d<\/p>\n And it turns out Van Aert might not even have made it to the velodrome without his cobblestone clarity.<\/p>\n Van Aert explained the image he posted to Instagram of the bunny hop he executed with all the skill of a champion \u2018crosser as he rattled over the cratered stones of the Carrefour de l\u2019Arbre.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was in the famous left-hand bend,\u201d he told fans. \u201cI remember thinking just before: \u2018It was on this stone that I got a flat tire in 2023.\u2019 That\u2019s why I jumped over it.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t realize I was going so high,\u201d he laughed. \u201cIt\u2019s a funny photo with a nice story.\u201d<\/p>\n Nice story indeed.<\/p>\n There wasn\u2019t a dry eye in the house when Van Aert collapsed with relief on the infield of the Roubaix velodrome.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a win that will forever top the 31-year-old\u2019s palmar\u00e8s and which no bike fan could be sour about.<\/p>\n The Killer Bees are still bathing in the glow of their talismanic leader sealing the monument triumph they wanted ever since he won San Remo in 2020.<\/p>\n The Dutch team just released a special T-shirt, poster, and even a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle of winning Wout. The Lease a Bike sponsoring brand daubed a memorial mural of Van Aert across the tarmac of its new offices in Mechelen, Flanders.<\/p>\n \u201cParis-Roubaix was the best moment of my career,\u201d Van Aert said Monday on the Rouvy group ride.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope to win other big races, but I\u2019m still savoring this victory. I felt a much greater sense of relief than after other major successes.\u201d<\/p>\n Next up for Wout?<\/p>\n Supporting Jonas Vingegaard at the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 and Tour de France this summer.<\/p>\n Jonas might have just gotten back his most important superdomestique.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/van-aert-roubaix-redemption-bunny-hop\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WVA-ROUBAIX-4.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated April 22, 2026 03:38AM Wout van Aert\u2019s heart-melting victory over Tadej Poga\u010dar at Paris-Roubaix was born from years of agony, frustration, and a perfectly timed bunny hop. Speaking to fans Monday during a virtual group ride, Van Aert said his redemptive victory at the Hell of the North earlier […]<\/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-1896602","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\/1896602","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=1896602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1896602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1896602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1896602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}From victory on the Champs to a sixth sense on the cobbles<\/h2>\n
![\"Van](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8B_3255-1200x750.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
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Van Aert still relishing the \u2018best moment in my career\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Van](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8A_3091-1200x750.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")