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
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.
20.5km to go
Moscon is just edging away again. Maybe having him so close has forced the five behind to reconsider, switching their thoughts from simply reeling him in to an overall victory. Sonny Colbrelli is taking particularly brief turns on the front, and you’d say the ball is in the court of the other riders to produce something to dislodge him from that group.
Moscon onto the cobbles of Sector Five: Camphin-en-Pevele. 1800m. It’s a winding section, and the cobbles look horrific - buried beneath the muck and mire of a day’s rain.
22.5km to go
10 seconds now the gap. Colbrelli takes up the chase as Mathieu van der Poel slips in behind him. Up the road the Italian gazes as the six contenders for victory enter a straight section of clean, dry, comfortable road, and there is Moscon, tantalisingly close for the quintet behind.
We aren’t far away from the next section of pavé, and it is a particularly twisty bit. Moscon appears to have widened the gap, but he’ll need every second, you think.
24.5km to go
I say that, but of course Sonny Colbrelli might just be best placed to pounce on his compatriot’s misfortune. If that group of five goes to the line together the Bahrain-Victorious man probably has the fastest finish. We’ve not seen him in a sprint situation after a race like Paris-Roubaix, though - this is his debut at the Queen of the Classics.
26km to go - Gianni Moscon crashes!!
He’s down! Gianni Moscon crashes! Away goes his front tyre, down goes the Ineos Grenadier, and into a puddle he slides.
And there they are! The group behind have him in their sights. 13 seconds the gap as Moscon alights to take up his charge for victory again.
It was a very, very similar incident to one that occurred with Lizzie Deignan in a similar position yesterday, but the British rider stayed upright, and the Italian did not. Might their summer of sporting success have come crashing down with him?
27km to go
Agony etched on the face of Gianni Moscon. 40 seconds is his gap, but it is only likely to go in one direction and we haven’t yet seen a proper, proper last dig from any of the trailing quintet. Moscon back on to a sector of cobbles - the last of the three five-star sectors is about 10km away.
29km to go
The gap closes to 45 seconds. Mathieu van der Poel is back with Sonny Colbrelli, Florian Vermeersch and two from Israel Start-Up Nation - Guillaume Boivin is accompanied by Tom Van Asbroeck. Their cars will be telling them of Gianni Moscon’s difficulty. Let’s see if they can co-ordinate a chase.
30km to go - Gianni Moscon punctures!
What drama! Gianni Moscon’s back tyre has punctured! The Ineos Grenadiers rider looks down, desperately, but he’s going to have to change his bike.
How much time will he lose? 20 seconds? More? How will it impact his rhythm? This isn’t over.
33km to go - The gap narrows...or has it?
Has Giannoi Moscon popped? The gap suddenly drops to 45 seconds between the Italian and Mathieu van der Poel behind him, with no apparent incident to cause the drop...
Oh no! It’s an error on the race radio. The gap remains more than a minute.
35km to go
A great beaming smile on the face of Servais Knaven, the Dutch directeur sportif for Ineos Grenadiers. He won this race in similarly horrific conditions 20 (and a half) years ago - might he be helping Moscon to victory today?
The Knavens has already made history this weekend. Yesterday, daughter Britt of NXTG Racing rode the first ever women’s Paris-Roubaix, in the process makign the pair the first father-daughter duo to competitively ride the cobbles to the Roubaix velodrome.
37km to go - Another attack from Mathieu van der Poel
Sector Nine of cobbles and Mathieu van der Poel had to attack now. Guillaume Boivin had gamely followed every acceleration until now but just slips off the wheel and it appears the Dutchman may have distances his group-mates. They’ve picked up the two who were with Gianni Moscon earlier but they simply slip behind Sonny Colbrelli as van der Poel powers into the distance.
Immediately the gap to Moscon narrows - 1’10” separate the Ineos Grenadier and the Alpecin-Fenix rider.
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