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 15:21 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

(BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)

[3 October 2021 15:20 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

39km to go

A few of the riders in the Wout Van Aert group that I’ve spotted - Soren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM), Christophe Laporte (Cofidis), Heinrich Haussler (Bahrain-Victorious). Sep Vanmarcke had fought his way back amongst things, too, but the desperately unfortunate Belgian has called for a bike change. Luck is rarely on the side of one of the peloton’s nearly-men, runner-up to Fabian Cancellara at Paris-Roubaix 2013.

[3 October 2021 15:17 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

41km to go

Here’s a quick summary of how things stand. It has been particularly hellish in northern France today but as we near 40km to go might the winning move already have been made?

[3 October 2021 15:14 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

44km to go

I must confess that I thought the elastic might have snapped when Mathieu van der Poel went up the road but slowly, slowly, the Alpecin-Fenix rider is starting to be reeled in. It’s 30 seconds now to the Van Aert group, and EF Education Nippo’s Jonas Rutsch has decided he fancies a jaunt - he attacks from that peloton-of-sorts, and forces the Belgian to follow.

[3 October 2021 15:11 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

45km to go

The Italian has - this is looking better and better for Ineos Grenadiers. It is 1’22” to Mathieu van der Poel, Guillaume Boivin and Sonny Colbrelli, who are also being pulled closer to the peloton - Wout Van Aert et al. are now about 40 seconds from them.

[3 October 2021 15:09 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

46.5km to go

These cobbles are properly, properly horrible. It’s hard to distinguish between the ploughed fields beyond the spectators to the left and the right and the pavé through the centre as the riders try to find stable ground through which to pilot their bikes. There are puddles right across the road, too, in places, with flags of Flanders fluttering in the breeze with a healthy Belgian contingent amongst those assembled alongside the riders.

Moscon looks strong, and it looks like he might have just put a bit more time into those further back.

[3 October 2021 15:06 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

48km to go - On to the next five-star sector of cobbles

Here it is: Mons-en-Pevele, 3km of tough cobbles for the riders to confront and cross. The reports from the course are that this sector is particularly horrible today, though the rain has at least relented and the wind does not appear particularly strong.

Gianni Moscon still alone at the front, 35 seconds clear of those he left when he attacked. Mathieu van der Poel about twice as far back, leading his trio on to the nasty bumps.

Increasingly out of it look the Wout Van Aert group - they are more than two minutes down on the race lead.

[3 October 2021 15:04 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

50km to go

I mentioned earlier that Gianni Moscon would be an unpopular winner - the Ineos Grenadiers man has a horrible history in the peloton, having racially abused and thrown a bike at fellow riders.

Here is some good news, then - Mathieu van der Poel accelerates and his group is now down to three. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Victorious) is there, as is, very surprisingly, the Canadian champion Guillaume Boivin of Israel Start-Up Nation. He’s a bit of a journeyman but this is a really good showing from the Quebecois.

[3 October 2021 15:00 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

52km to go - Gianni Moscon strikes out

Out on his lonesome treks Gianni Moscon, attacking from the front of the race. This is a very similar spot to where the great monument man Tom Boonen made his telling move in 2012 - the Italian isn’t quite the rider that Boonen was but he’s already increased his gap to a minute or so on that van der Poel group.

[3 October 2021 14:58 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

54km to go

Let us indulge in some wild speculation, for a moment, but if this van der Poel group does stay away then you would think the Dutchman will want to force something before the finish. He has got an explosive sprint but probably not one to match someone like Sonny Colbrelli, who was dragged to the line by Belgian wunderkind Remco Evenepoel at the European Championships and comfortably out-kicked him. Van der Poel may also reflect on the Tour of Flanders in the spring, when he was a hot-favourite to outpace Kasper Asgreen to the line but was beaten by the Dane in a superb victory for Deceuninck-QuickStep. Plenty to weigh for one of the favourites.