It’s just a finger, but for Wout van Aert it means everything. The Belgian from the Dutch team Visma-Lease a Bike had made it the main goal of his career, ever since he made his debut in Paris-Roubaix in 2018.
That year, while Van Aert was racing to a creditable ninth place, his teammate and friend Michael Goolaerts suffered a heart attack on the bike during the race. The 23-year-old Belgian died on the ground next to a cobblestone strip.
Since then, Van Aert has wanted nothing more than to honor his friend by winning the cobbled classic in northern France and pointing to the sky, and this Sunday afternoon the time has finally come. “This year, for the first time since his death, I drove over the strip where he died,” Van Aert says afterwards in a soft voice. “I like to think he gave me some extra strength today.”
His victory is a surprise: in the run-up to this edition of the ‘Hell of the North’, it was mainly about Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel, both of whom could write history. If he won, the Slovenian could have joined the most exclusive group in cycling. Only three riders won the five major cycling classics (‘monuments’) at least once during their career; the last time a rider did that, the Belgian Roger De Vlaeminck, was almost fifty years ago. Pogacar was four out of five after his victory in Milan-San Remo earlier this season.
Van der Poel could have become the first cyclist to win Paris-Roubaix four times in a row. After his victories in 2023, 2024 and 2025, many saw him as the only person who stood between Pogacar and his history.
Not Pogacar, not Van der Poel, but the rider who has been dogged by injuries for years can raise a heavy cobblestone as a trophy afterwards. Based on his talent, Van Aert is considered to be in the same category as his Slovenian and Dutch competitor, but his results have lagged behind in recent seasons.
Van Aert won one monument: Milan-San Remo, six years ago. While Pogacar (twelve monuments) and Van der Poel (eight monuments) kept improving, the Belgian was busy returning from injuries more often than he would like. “He has had so many setbacks,” says his team boss Richard Plugge. “That’s why he deserves this so much.”
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Fallow farm paths
The cobblestones of northern France showed on Sunday why winning Paris-Roubaix requires more than just the strongest legs. Van der Poel had mentioned it beforehand: he had not had any bad luck in recent years and was hoping for that again this edition.
This time, however, no one is spared: first Pogacar suffers a puncture, and suddenly he loses his aura of untouchability. There is no team car nearby, the Slovenian world champion has to continue on a blue loan bike from the race roadside assistance. When he is finally given his own spare bike, he is one minute behind.
Mathieu van der Poel has to wait for a bicycle change after a material failure on the cobblestones in the Bos van Wallers.
Photo Etienne Garnier/AFP
Just before the first cobblestone section of the toughest five-star category, in the Forest of Wallers, Pogacar is back and it is Van der Poel’s turn. Also a flat tire; He gets the bike from a teammate, cannot click his shoes into the pedals and then walks to the end of the cobblestone road, exhausted. His deficit: two minutes. While the Dutchman gives chase, Van Aert also suffers a puncture at the front, but that remains without major consequences.
After a preliminary final full of material suffering, Pogacar and Van Aert end up alone at the front about fifty kilometers from the finish. There is no one else left: Van der Poel comes back to within twenty seconds but no closer than that, the other 172 riders have been finished.
Then the lurking begins: who is still fresh? Who still has energy for that one decisive acceleration? Pogacar stretches his back a few times, Van Aert shakes his head once when it is his turn for some heading work.
A few unsuccessful accelerations further, it is clear that the two riders cannot get away from each other. Together they race over the fallow farm paths through the green meadows until they turn onto the velodrome in Roubaix. Van Aert leaves no doubt about who is the strongest this Sunday: he clearly wins the sprint. “Nice to see how much speed he still had,” said the defeated Pogacar afterwards.
Corona infection
There is enormous relief from the Dutch team in the middle area of the old cycling track. “Yessss,” shouts team owner Plugge, who is so obsessed with this race that he has cobblestones on his driveway. When he sees Van Aert, the rider and team boss cannot hold back their tears.
Visma-LAB is one of the most successful teams of the past decade, winning the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta d’Espana, even all three in the same year. But a victory in one of the two most important one-day races – Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders – failed to materialize all these years, despite the creation of a ‘classics core’ full of specialists and months of meticulous preparations.
Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar leaving the Forest of Wallers.
Photo Francois Lo Presti/AFP
It was often bad luck that bothered the Dutch team and its Belgian leader Van Aert. Van Aert was leading the way to Roubaix in 2023 when he suffered a puncture. The year before he was top favorite for the Tour of Flanders, but got corona.
None of that this time. Every setback, every loss, every experience and every training now yields the grand prize. “It also feels like a great relief,” says Van Aert. “I am extremely proud that I have been able to successfully complete all these years of work.” Christophe Laporte, one of Van Aert’s teammates who has been with Visma-LAB since 2022, said afterwards happily: “We have had little luck in recent years, but today the stars were in our favor.”
Everyone seems to favor Van Aert; the stadium cheers euphorically when he crosses the line first. “I am happy for him,” Pogacar also says. “When you see how many times he has come back from adversity, how he never gives up. He is really a hero for the youth.” Team boss Plugge calls Van Aert “a man of the people” after he swallows a lump in his throat. “It’s great to make all those fans happy, it was really a Wout van Aert party.”