{"id":587897,"date":"2026-04-07T11:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/587897\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:35:09","slug":"paris-roubaix-rematch-looms-as-pogacar-and-van-der-poel-circle-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/587897\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris-Roubaix rematch looms as Poga\u010dar and Van der Poel circle again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chaos, crashes, bad luck and brilliance \u2014 Paris-Roubaix<\/a> never goes to plan. It\u2019s an absolutely brutal race where control slips quickly, where one mistake can undo everything, and where survival matters as much as strength. There\u2019s just a tiny line between glory and disaster, played out over brutally tough pav\u00e9.<\/p>\n

And now in the men\u2019s race, all eyes turn to the rematch.<\/p>\n

Mathieu van der Poel arrives chasing history after his recent dominance, while Tadej Poga\u010dar lines up with unfinished business following a dramatic debut that fell just short.<\/p>\n

The early break had its moment, but once the favourites took control, the race sharpened. Poga\u010dar lit things up first, forcing splits and testing rivals, before Van der Poel responded with the kind of power that defines Roubaix winners. A select group formed, then fractured again as sectors ticked by.<\/p>\n

The turning point came not from strength alone, but a rare error on the Slovenian\u2019s part. Although, this was his first go at the Hell of the North. Riders like van der Poel and van Aert have been racing Roubaix for years. And it\u2019s one thing to do a recon, it\u2019s another at race speed.<\/p>\n

But, Poga\u010dar misjudged a corner deep in the race, hit trouble, and suddenly the balance tipped. Van der Poel stayed upright, found daylight and never looked back.<\/p>\n

He rode alone to the velodrome.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar chased, but the race was gone. But what would have happened if he had stayed with the Alpecin-Premier Tech. There are no climbs for him to drop him, like we just saw at Tour of Flanders.<\/p>\n

And had the UAE Emirates rider stayed with MvdP, could he really stand a chance in a sprint \u00e0 deux in Roubaix?<\/p>\n

Or can Pogi drop van der Poel on the flats this year? The world champion is hungry to take the fifth Monument\u2013but this one seems even more impossible than anything. Sure, Milan-San Remo was \u201cimpossible\u201d due to the Poggi and Cipressa not being \u201chard\u201d enough\u2026but he managed to win, anyway. Even after all that bad luck. Then again, Roubaix is all about how much good luck you have\u2026but how little bad luck. Everyone is going to have a flat, or crash, or caught behind one. The trick is minimizing that. And if it\u2019s not those two, what about Wout van Aert or Mads Pedersen?<\/p>\n

Riders continue to say that Poga\u010dar is even better this year\u2013another level up. Will that be enough to make history and add another notch to his incredible palmar\u00e8s? Paris-Roubaix goes down Sunday, with the men\u2019s and women\u2019s being broadcast on Flobikes.com<\/a>. Canadian Cycling Magazine will have a full report, too. Startlists are still being finalized, so check back here to see which Canadian men and women will be riding L\u2019Enfer du Nord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chaos, crashes, bad luck and brilliance \u2014 Paris-Roubaix never goes to plan. It\u2019s an absolutely brutal race where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[191778,49,48,635,13633,82,1422],"class_list":{"0":"post-587897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-2026-paris-roubaix","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tadej-pogacar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}