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.

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[3 October 2021 16:04 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

10km to go

Two more cobbled sections. Three riders at the front. A wet, windy, wild return for Paris-Roubaix comes down to this.

And can you believe it - they are all debutants!

[3 October 2021 16:01 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

12km to go

Gianni Moscon is going backwards - 24 seconds away, now, and the Ineos Grenadier will not figure in the final.

Neither, you’d say, will Wout Van Aert - more than a minute back to him.

[3 October 2021 16:00 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

14km to go

An attack from Florian Vermeersch! Surely not? This would be the shock of the century! We’ve had surprise winners at Paris-Roubaix before but this is an outstanding ride from the Belgian.

He can’t quite shake his more illustrious company, but he’s staying with them, each of them obfuscated by that adhesive mud.

[3 October 2021 15:58 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

14.5km to go

What’s happening behind them? It looks like Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) has dragged a group of about four riders with him but that looks a futile effort from the Belgian champion, who still appears some way down.

[3 October 2021 15:57 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

15.5km to go

No sooner had the group come together and off went the Italian, who had pretty clearly been biding his time and conserving his energy for a move just like that. He clearly doesn’t think he will be able to out-kick Mathieu van der Poel in the velodrome and wishes to dislodge him now...

But the Dutchman stays with him! And so does, utterly, utterly remarkably, Florian Vermeersch!

[3 October 2021 15:55 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

16km to go - Gianni Moscon is caught!

Four at the front. Gianni Moscon is caught. How different things might have been had he not punctured and crashed, but that might be his race ridden.

And Colbrelli attacks!

[3 October 2021 15:54 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

16.5km to go - Mathieu van der Poel accelerates...

Here he goes! Mathieu van der Poel puts his foot down and Vermeersch and Sonny Colbrelli have to give everything they have to hold his wheel. They do, but Gianni Moscon is all but caught.

[3 October 2021 15:53 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

17km to go

This is a star-making performance from Florian Vermeersch. The Lotto-Soudal man has been tipped as a potential classics contender for a few years after an impressive junior career in cyclo-cross but he is mixing it with the very, very best in the world on debut at the Hell of the North. Impressive stuff from the 22-year-old.

[3 October 2021 15:52 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

18km to go

Is that a gap? Sonny Colbrelli just loses the wheel, for a moment, as Florian Vermeersch, somehow still at the front of the race having been at the pointy end all day, and Mathieu van der Poel begin to break free.

Not for long - Colbrelli punches on his pedals and manages to get back in touch with the pair.

[3 October 2021 15:50 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

19km to go

The motorbikes aren’t immune - down goes the camera-man! Ah, that’s why - Guillaume Boivin has crashed just in front of them and the motorcycle driver has done brilliantly to avoid him, sacrificing himself and his camera-toting colleague to avoid causing damage to the Canadian, who has ridden so well.