Van Baarle goes from zero to hero to win fastest Paris-Roubaix for Ineos Grenadiers

ROUBAIX, France: Six months after finishing the Queen of the Classics outside the time limit, Dylan van Baarle won the Paris-Roubaix Monument on Sunday (Apr 17) to give the Ineos Grenadiers team their most prestigious victory in a one-day race.

The 29-year-old Dutchman, who was second in the Tour of Flanders two weeks ago, went solo 19km from the finish line on a key cobbled sector to prevail at a record average speed of 45.79kph.

Belgium's Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), back to competitive racing after two weeks off due to COVID-19, took second place, one minute 47 seconds behind, after outsprinting Swiss Stefan Kueng (Groupama-FDJ) in the Roubaix velodrome.

"I could not believe it when I went onto the velodrome. I looked on the other side to see if there were other guys but it was just me," Van Baarle, his face covered in a mix of sweat and dust, said after a 257.2-km effort.

"I had never experienced being the first guy on the velodrome. Last year I was out of the time limit but this year it was different.

"I had goose bumps when I saw (team manager) Dave (Brailsford) celebrating at the finish line, it looked like he was alone in the velodrome."

Favourite Mathieu van der Poel was never really in the mix and finished a disappointing ninth, more than two minutes behind his compatriot, the first Dutch rider to win Paris-Roubaix since Niki Terpstra in 2014.

Ineos Grenadiers blew up the race with 210km to go, splitting the bunch in crosswinds and leaving the likes of Van Aert and Van der Poel chasing.

"It was not planned at all but it turned out like this. We were from the gun super focused. That’s what we wanted, we didn’t want to chase, we wanted to be on the front foot and that’s what we did," said Van Baarle, who was one of many