right said fred - why do we even compete? well done.
but, to answer my own question - sometimes just to get on the podium
you spin me wright round, baby fred, wright round....

c'mon politt - i've been backing you for weeks now!

This is truly teeing MvdP up. Kung has to work, Mads has to work, Pollit has to work. MvdP is fresh.

Who can follow when MvdP explodes?
Impressive tail gunning from Soren V of Uno X.
Philipsen is an assassin.

same thing I am thinking - he is having a free ride... when he attacks the race is going to be over

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

I like the music reference. Wouldn’t have gotten it had it not been for a German TV show that featured the song.

It’s all good :)

Man Tiz is really letting me down today....

Hammer dropped. Though a ~60 km solo is quite daring. I think FC in 2010 and Boonen in 2012 were from that distance.

His body language looks more resolute than even Flanders, and he’s absolutely flying.

It hasn't always been the case, but Mathieu seems to do amazingly well at staying puncture free. He just floats across everything.

race over?

yikes, dude looks posed

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

Indeed. His minions are protecting his lead well, and now the team car is allowed into the gap.

I should go back to sleep.

yikes. it's down to lady luck now. but lady luck has thrown some cruel punches (Yves Lampaert a few years ago/Wout last year/ et cetera).
i wish mads could be more prudent with his efforts, but to some degree his hand has been forced.
mads and philipsen might be the only guys left thinking about the win instead of 'just' the podium.

He put :30 on them in 3k secteur 11. Meantime, guys from behind attack because… they’re going to bridge up solo?

Funny, I haven't had a problem.

You know, if Wout is able to regroup and somehow win Olympics or World's, this may have ended up an OK year. Cause Mathieu was just untouchable. Full Stop.

Yeah that seems like something you'd learn pretty early on, keep your eyes looking ahead, you don't need to turn and look at someone to talk to them, especially through a corner.

Lady (bad) Luck - George Hincappie, 2006

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

That was a Pithie, he was looking so good up there.

Baring catastrophe, this will be 4 Monuments and 3 World Championships in less than 20 months.

Trivia:
Lots of guys do the Ronde-Roubaix double, but not many do it in the WC jersey. The last was Boonen in 2005.

So good.

Regarding VDP, I just saw some beer thrown again on the cobbles.

I think Boonen had a 75-90 second gap in 2012. MvdP is now above 2:30.

Would you know who had a winning margin similar to MvdP’s in the past 20 yrs?

From Cyclingnews feed

Van der Poel's lead is growing again. It's over 2-30 now - maybe Museeuw's 3-04 will be under threat after all.

For context, when Dylan van Baarle pulled-off his huge win in 2022, the winning margin was 1-47. And that was the biggest for 12 years when, Fabian Cancellara won by exactly 2 minutes. This could be the biggest Paris-Roubaix victory for many years.

Magnus B?

Where can I watch the race?

Was wondering if anyone had done the double as WC.

Looks like ADC will put 3 guys in top 10, and bagged 3 Monuments in a row. They’ve become the spring classics juggernaut.