Paris-Roubaix 2021 LIVE: Latest updates and result from men’s race after multiple crashes

Follow all the latest updates and reaction as the famous one-day classics race returns for the first time in 18 months

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Italian Sonny Colbrelli won the Paris-Roubaix Monument classic, a 257.7-km ride from Compiegne, on Sunday.

European champion Colbrelli of Team Bahrain Victorious, outsprinted Belgian Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Soudal) and Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), who were second and third respectively.

Follow all the latest updates and reaction from the iconic race below.

Paris-Roubaix

• Alaphilippe, Van der Poel, Van Aert and Pidcock among favourites
• Lizzie Deignan wins thrilling first women’s Paris-Roubaix

[3 October 2021 12:11 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Paris-Roubaix 2021 - How things stand...

The riders have been out and about for nearly two hours already, and true to form, it’s been eventful from the very off. It was inside 200 metres of active racing when we saw our first crash, with Mitch Docker, the popular Australian riding professionally for the final time (and with a fractured elbow), among those to go down. The EF Education-Nippo man was swiftly back on his bike, though, and on we went...

[3 October 2021 12:10 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Paris-Roubaix 2021

The last time we were here was in a different epoch. Two and a half years ago and it was Philippe Gilbert marking monument number four off his palmarès, the great Belgian classicist out-kicking a valiant Nils Politt for the line.

And then the world stopped. And Paris-Roubaix stopped with it. First a delay; then another. And one more for good measure, too. Yet here we, finally, are, back on the famous pavé, and those above have treated us to the first wet race to Roubaix since 2002. It is hooning it down in northern France, with a whisper of wind threatening to further muddy this most magnificent of monuments.

It is one of sport’s unique challenges, one of cycling’s grandest spectacles, the world’s best and bravest bike riders placing their fates not so much in the lap of the gods but on the whims of Hades himself down below. This is the Hell of the North, this is the Queen of the Classics - this is Paris-Roubaix...

[3 October 2021 11:55 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Paris-Roubaix 2021

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Paris-Roubaix. The men’s race is underway as the famous one-day event on the French cobbles returns for the first time since 2019. The race was cancelled for the first time since the Second World War last year due to Covid-19 and cycling fans have been rewarded for their patience with the first wet race in two decades, adding more treachery to the punishing conditions.

World champion and home favourite Julian Alaphilippe, the Belgian all-rounder Wout van Aert and Dutch superstar Mathieu van der Poel are among the favourites for the 257.7-kilometre race dubbed ‘Hell in the North’. It’s already been a brilliant weekend after Lizzie Deignan created history by winning the first women’s race after a superb breakaway, which also came in wet and dangerous conditions on Saturday.