“I had one of my best days on the bike,” said Mathieu van der Poel. After a solo attack, the Alpecin-Deceuninck team leader proudly raised up the iconic cobble stone at Parigi-Roubaix on Sunday. Collecting the 4th Monument’s trophy of his career, Van der Poel also took over the early lead-out of his teammate Jasper Philipsen. The latter stood up on the podium with the second place.

“I think I’ve done my best Classics season ever and to finish it off like this is a dream. It’s incredible how we rode as a team, with Jasper finishing second. It’s not possible to do better than this,” said Van der Poel.

Philipsen added: “We wouldn’t have dared to dream this, but it will stay with me for a long time. We can be very satisfied with the team. We are proud of ourselves. Everything had to fall into place and today it was for us. That is very beautiful”.