Without diminishing the victory of Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick Step) at all, the secret protagonist of the last Paris-Roubaix in the 2010s was Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)
The first part of the 257 km long race between Compaigne and Roubaix was rather uneventful. Deceuninck-Quick Step controlled the peloton, what made the race one of the fastest of the recent years. Although a breakaway group established earlier, the peloton arrived at the gate of Arenberg Forest together. This cobbled sector is 95 km far from the finish line, but it usually serves as watershed during the race.
The most important event during this sector was Wout van Aerts’s crash and his efforts to rejoin the peloton. Within 10 km he almost managed, but than he crashed again and had to start his chasing work again.
However, when the real competition started with cca 60 km to go, he was already at the front of the peloton.
Inside 70 km Wesley Kreder (Wanty -Gobert) launched an attack and 4 km later Gilbert and a smaller group tried to reach him. A trio established with Gilbert, Nils Politt (Katusha) and Rüdiger Selig (BORA -hansgrohe), but the latter dropped soon.
Around this time his teammate, Peter Sagan, now riding in the Slovakian national champion jersey, launched his attack. A few riders joined, including Wout van Aert. Reaching the 50 km mark Gilbert left alone at the front of the race, but Politt was able to join the chasing group led by Sagan. They soon caught Gilbert. The group of six riders included Gilbert, Sagan, Van Aert, Politt, Sep Vanmarcke (EF) and Yves Lampaert, Gilbert’s teammate in the Belgian national champion jersey.
There were several attempt to chase this leading group, like the attack of Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) or Greg Van Avermaet (CCC), but the gap of one minute established soon .
With 25 km to go Gilbert attacked which caused a split in the frint group. Politt and Sagan could go with him, meanwhile this was the end of vVan Aert’s story for this day. Later Lampart and Vanmarcke rejoined, but an attack of Politt and Gilbert chasing made clear the winner of the day will be one of these two riders.
Arriving in the velodrome, Politt rode at the front. what made for Gilbert the attack easier and he won the race.
Top 10 of the race
1 Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Deceuninck–Quick-Step 5h 58′ 02″
2 Nils Politt (GER) Team Katusha–Alpecin + 0″
3 Yves Lampaert (BEL) Deceuninck–Quick-Step + 13″
4 Sep Vanmarcke (BEL) EF Education First + 40″
5 Peter Sagan (SVK) Bora–Hansgrohe + 42″
6 Florian Sénéchal (FRA) Deceuninck–Quick-Step + 47″
7 Mike Teunissen (NED) Team Jumbo–Visma + 47″
8 Zdeněk Štybar (CZE) Deceuninck–Quick-Step + 47″
9 Evaldas Šiškevičius (LTU) Delko–Marseille Provence + 47″
10 Sebastian Langeveld (NED) EF Education First + 47
Without diminishing the victory of Philippe Gilbert at all, the secret protagonist of the last Paris-Roubaix in the 2010s was Wout van Aert