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.
On to 2022
A brilliant, brilliant weekend on the cobbles of northern France. First it was the arrival of a long-awaited women’s Paris-Roubaix, as the Queen of the Classics attended it’s inaugural coronation of a female champion. And what a champion she was - a longe ranger from 90km to the finish, victory for Lizzie Deignan, history emphatically made.
And then on to an autumnal, a first wet Roubaix for nearly 20 years and a fight for victory as the return to the screen of this storied Sunday in hell lived up to its billing. There was carnage, there was chaos, and there was the calm of Colbrelli, an Italian, of course, Victorious, again.
I’ve been Harry Latham-Coyle for The Independent - thank you for joining us!
Top Ten
We are just about done with our live coverage of a remarkable return for Paris-Roubaix on a wet, wild and wondrous weekend in northern France, but let’s round-up the final top ten before I depart:
1. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Victorious, Italy)
2. Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Soudal, Belgium)
3. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix, Netherlands)
4. Gianni Moscon (Ineos Grenadiers, Italy)
5. Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep, Belgium)
6. Christophe Laporte (Cofidis, France)
7. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma, Belgium)
8. Tom Van Asbroeck (Israel Start-Up Nation, Belgium)
9. Guillaume Boivin (Israel Start-Up Nation, Canada)
10. Heinrich Haussler (Bahrain-Victorious, Australia)
Sonny Colbrelli wins Paris-Roubaix
A massive great grin for Sonny Colbrelli - a first monument for a rider going from strength to strength. Remarkably, his best performance at any of cycling’s famous five classics before this was a sixth at Milan-San Remo. He’ll be a real contender when we encounter a more conventional spring schedule in 2022.
On to the podium
De-mucked and dusted down, on to the podium step our outstanding leading trio. Mathieu van der Poel is just about keeping it together - he looks absolutely gutted as he takes his small cobble for third place. Florian Vermeersch also looks upset - he came so, so close to one of the great underdog victory.
Tears in the eyes of Sonny Colbrelli as he strides on to the summit of the rostrum and raises the famous cobbled trophy aloft. A kiss of the stone, and a hand to the heart as the first strains of “Il Canto degli Italiani” play. Haven’t we all got used to hearing that this year?
Fourth-placed Gianni Moscon of Ineos Grenadiers speaks to Eurosport
“I gave everything. A little bit of bad luck with the puncture and then I was on the limit, and when you are on the limit you make mistakes. I crashed and when they came from behind I didn’t have the legs.
On if he would have won without his puncture and crash: “Who knows? We cannot say this. I don’t know how much I lost with those two things. I am just looking forward to having some rest. There is Il Lombardia on Saturday - we’ll see.
“It was spectacular. Another Italian won - our nation can be happy anyway.”
Three debutants on the podium
It was always likelier that a debutant would be in the mix after a two-and-a-half year break for the Hell of the North, but the entire podium comprised of debutants? I’m not sure anyone would have predicted that.
Sonny Colbrelli is having quite the 2021: Green jerseys at the Tour of Romandie and the Dauphiné, wins in the national and continental championships, an overall crown at the Benelux Tour. A brilliant rider, and Italy have done it again.
Florian Vermeersch
Second place for Florian Vermeersch on Paris-Roubaix - take a bow! That was a remarkable performance from a young Belgian of limited profile for Lotto-Soudal. In fact, I’m fairly certain that Sonny Colbrelli has absolutely no idea who he is - throughout that interview he was simply “the Lotto-Soudal rider”. Second, ahead of Mathieu van der Poel, ahead of all bar one of the world’s finest classicists - a star-making performance.
Sonny Colbrelli speaks to Eurosport
“Unbelievable! My first Paris-Roubaix and I win. Today was a legendary Roubaix, with the rain. I attacked with 90km to go. It was a super sprint.
“Gianni Moscon went and was super, super strong, he held on for 200km. I followed van der Poel on the sprint but the Lotto-Soudal rider went with 200m to go, but I got him in the last 25km to go.
“This was a dream. It was super difficult. This year is my year! I am very happy!”
Mathieu van der Poel falls just short..again
Oh, Mathieu...I
it’s a similar position from the Dutchman, but his are tears of despair: third, in the end, unable to find that final kick for the line that he so desperately wanted. It was a brilliant, brilliant performance from van der Poel, the instigator of so much throughout a chaotic day of carnage on the cobbles, first attacking with 70km to go and rarely inert thereafter.
But for a second time in 2021 he misses out on a cobbled classic in a final sprint for the line. Kasper Asgreen in Flanders, Colbrelli in Roubaix - maybe he is human after all.
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