Who is Tadej Pogačar? The man behind the unexpected win at Tour de France

The Hell of the North Has Its King: Wout Van Aert It took him eight years. Eight years of crashes, punctures, injuries and regrets. Eight years of returning every April to these cursed cobblestones with the broken heart of 2018 sewn inside him — when, at his very first Paris-Roubaix, he lost his teammate Michael Goolaerts. Sunday, 12 April 2026, at the Vélodrome André-Pétrieux in Roubaix, Wout Van Aert — 31 years old, Belgian, the eternal nearly-man always expected to deliver the big win — raised cycling’s most beautiful trophy to the sky. He pointed it upwards. For Michael. Wout Van Aert wins Paris-Roubaix 2026, the 123rd edition of the Queen of the Classics, outsprinting World Champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). Third place for Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep), fourth for Mathieu Van der Poel, betrayed by fate in the Hell of Arenberg.   Paris-Roubaix 2026 Results – Final Standings Pos. Rider Team Time Gap 1 Wout Van Aert (BEL) Visma-Lease a Bike 5:16:52 2 Tadej Pogačar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates-XRG s.t. 3 Jasper Stuyven (BEL) Soudal-QuickStep +0:13 4 Mathieu Van der Poel (NED) Alpecin-Premier Tech +0:15 5 Christophe Laporte (FRA) Visma-Lease a Bike s.t. 6 Tim Van Dijke (NED) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe s.t. 7 Mads Pedersen (DEN) Lidl-Trek s.t. 8 Stefan Bissegger (SUI) Decathlon CMA CGM +0:20 9 Nils Politt (GER) UAE Team Emirates-XRG +2:36 10 Mike Teunissen (NED) XDS Astana s.t.   The Race: chaos, punctures and a legendary duel The protagonists break away at sector 12 Paris-Roubaix 2026 was one of the most unpredictable and spectacular editions in decades — the fastest ever, with speeds exceeding 50 km/h at the race’s most intense moments. Over 258.3 km from Compiègne to the Roubaix velodrome, with 54.8 km of cobblestones spread across 30 sectors, the race saw its main protagonists reckon with the brutality of the Hell of the North. Van Aert and Pogačar broke clear at sector 12, building a lead that no chasing group could close. Two rivals, one goal, 258 km of war on the cobbles. The stage was set for a textbook duel. Van der Poel’s ordeal at Arenberg The script seemed destined to include Mathieu Van der Poel — three-time winner of the Hell of the North and the undisputed master of recent editions. But the Trouée d’Arenberg delivered brutal justice: a double puncture, a chaotic bike change, and a deficit that swelled to 2 minutes at the worst possible moment. Yet Van der Poel refused to surrender: a furious chase, worthy of his talent, brought him all the way back to fourth place, just 15 seconds down — an achievement within the achievement. Victory, however, was already elsewhere. Pogačar’s punctures: the World Champion refuses to quit Tadej Pogačar endured his own personal ordeal. Three punctures, three bike changes: at one point the Slovenian had already fallen a minute behind before even reaching Arenberg. An exhausting chase, made possible by an extraordinary UAE team, brought him back into contention. The World Champion fought back, battled through the hardest sectors of the finale and led the two-man group all the way to the velodrome entrance. But his physical freshness was gone. As Pogačar himself admitted after the finish: “It wasn’t ideal. I had three punctures and three bike changes. I had a strong team that brought me back before Arenberg, but I was already cooked. With Wout I didn’t have the legs to drop him on the cobbles. I could see pretty quickly it was mission impossible. I gave everything in the sprint, but he won on the Champs-Élysées — it’s hard to beat him in a sprint.” On his physical condition in the finale, with disarming honesty: “My legs were like spaghetti.” The velodrome sprint: Van Aert makes history The two enter the Vélodrome André-Pétrieux together, Pogačar leading, Van Aert on his wheel. The stands erupt. In the final 400 metres of the track, the Belgian unleashes his sprint with the power of a man who has waited nearly a decade for this moment. Pogačar responds, but it is not enough. Van Aert crosses the line first, arms raised, his face finally unburdened after eight years of waiting. Behind them, 13 seconds back, Stuyven pips the chasing group, in which Van der Poel — against all odds — manages to recover fourth place. Van Aert: “This Victory Is for Michael” Wout Van Aert’s words after the victory are destined to become part of cycling history: “It means everything to me. It’s been a goal since 2018, when I first did this race and lost a teammate, Michael Goolaerts. Ever since then it has been my dream to point my finger to the sky. This victory is for Michael, but especially for his family.” “I stopped believing so many times, but the next day I always woke up and fought for it again. Honestly, there is no more beautiful way than this: going to the line with the World Champion, beating him one-on-one is something truly special for me.” “It’s such a chaotic race. I think every rider who made it to the velodrome has their own story, and that is why it is so beautiful.” The historical significance: Van Aert’s second Monument With this victory, Wout Van Aert claims the second Monument of his career, cementing his place among the greatest Classics riders of his generation. A triumph that arrives after a series of seasons marked by serious injuries, sporting regrets, and a resilience that has made him one of the most beloved riders in the world. For Pogačar, Paris-Roubaix remains the one Monument missing from his collection. The Slovenian already had 12 Monuments to his name (5 Il Lombardia, 3 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 3 Tour of Flanders, 1 Milan-San Remo 2026): the Hell of the North continues to resist. As Davide Cassani had predicted on the eve of the race, the punctures changed the story of the day — and Pogačar’s legs on the cobbles were no longer those of the fresh rider who might have dropped Van Aert. Van der Poel, for his part, sees the dream of a fourth consecutive Roubaix victory fade away, stopped by the one enemy no amount of preparation can defeat: mechanical misfortune. Italy in the spotlight: Davide Donati wins the U23 Roubaix The Italian story does not end with Pogačar’s tears. The tricolore also flew at the Vélodrome André-Pétrieux, thanks to Davide Donati, a 21-year-old from Brescia riding for Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe Rookies, teammate of Lorenzo Finn. The young Italian won the Paris-Roubaix Under 23 2026, outsprinting a nine-rider group and relegating Ireland’s Woody to second and the Netherlands’ Van Den Eijnden to third. He is the first Italian to win the U23 Roubaix since 2016, when a certain Filippo Ganna managed the feat. In the context of Italian cycling, this result is worth its weight in gold: Donati has already won three times as a professional (a GP de Wallonie, one victory last year and two at the Giro di Sardegna in February) and, at just 21, he is firmly on the radar for the Northern Classics in the years to come. Roubaix 2026 at a glance Who won Paris-Roubaix 2026? Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) won Paris-Roubaix 2026, outsprinting Tadej Pogačar at the Roubaix velodrome. What is the final standings of Paris-Roubaix 2026? 1st Van Aert, 2nd Pogačar, 3rd Stuyven (+13”), 4th Van der Poel (+15”), 5th Laporte. Why did Pogačar not win Paris-Roubaix 2026? Pogačar suffered three punctures and as many bike changes during the race, arriving at the final sprint with legs compromised by the long chase. Did Van der Poel abandon Paris-Roubaix 2026? Van der Poel did not abandon. He suffered a double puncture in the Forest of Arenberg, lost contact with the leaders, but fought back to finish fourth. Is this Van Aert’s first Paris-Roubaix victory? Yes, it is Van Aert’s first victory at the Hell of the North, and the second Monument of his career, after years of attempts, injuries and near-misses. Who won the Paris-Roubaix U23 2026? Italian rider Davide Donati (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe Rookies), aged 21, won the Paris-Roubaix Under 23 2026. He is the first Italian to do so since Filippo Ganna in 2016.

Pogačar and the last monument: why Paris-Roubaix is the final frontier There are races that define a generation, and then there is what Tadej Pogačar is attempting in the spring of 2026, something that has no real precedent in modern cycling. With 11 Monument victories already etched into the history books, the 27-year-old Slovenian is just one win away from joining an exclusive club of three riders who have ever conquered all five Monuments: Eddy Merckx, Rik Van Looy, and Roger De Vlaeminck. The missing piece? Paris-Roubaix — the Hell of the North. The race that doesn't just test your legs, but your nerve, your bike, your bones, and your luck. With the Tour of Flanders coming up on April 5 and Paris-Roubaix following on April 12, the next two weeks could see cycling history rewritten. Or not. Because on the pavé of northern France, no one — not even Pogačar — is guaranteed anything. Milan-Sanremo 2026: a statement victory Under a bloody skinsuit If you needed proof that Pogačar operates on a different plane, look no further than what happened at Milan-Sanremo on March 22, 2026. Just 6km before the Cipressa, he was caught in a heavy crash that tore his skinsuit and left him bleeding. A lesser rider would have lost contact. Pogačar set record pace on both the Cipressa and the Poggio, distilling the 300km race down to a two-up sprint against Tom Pidcock — which he won by a margin of just 4cm. It was his first Milan-Sanremo, the 11th Monument of his career, and yet another demonstration that his physical and mental resilience is without equal in the current peloton. Immediately after crossing the line, his message to the world was clear: "The shape is perfect. The team is ready. Bring on the cobbles." The five monuments: Pogačar's monument palmares in numbers To understand the scale of what Pogačar has achieved, it helps to see his Monument record laid out plainly. His 11 victories span four different races over just a few seasons: Il Lombardia: 5 wins (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) — his most beloved race Liège-Bastogne-Liège: 3 wins (2021, 2024, 2025) Tour of Flanders: 2 wins (2023, 2025) Milan-Sanremo: 1 win (2026) Paris-Roubaix: 0 wins — the one that got away The number that puts all of this in context: Eddy Merckx, the greatest rider of all time, had 12 Monument wins by age 27. Pogačar currently sits at 11. He is tracking the Cannibal's career with eerie precision — and he still has years ahead of him. Why Paris-Roubaix is different from everything else Every Monument has its character. Lombardia has its mountains and autumn romance. Liège has its brutal climbs in the Ardennes. Flanders has its iconic short, steep bergs and cobbled sections. But Paris-Roubaix is something else entirely. The 123rd edition of the race will cover approximately 257km from Compiègne to the velodrome in Roubaix, with 30 sections of cobblestones — totalling around 55km of pavé — at the heart of the challenge. What makes Roubaix unlike any other race is its unpredictability. The cobbles punish mechanicals, bad luck, and the slightest lapse in concentration. The best riders in the world have been undone by a puncture at the wrong moment or a crash on a slick, muddy section. Power alone isn't enough — you need cobble-racing DNA, the kind of body that can sustain hours of violent vibration at race pace, and the technical skill to ride the sectors at full gas without losing control. Pogačar knows this, and he has been preparing seriously. Earlier this season he completed a 210km reconnaissance of the course alongside teammate Florian Vermeersch, testing equipment and reading the cobbled sectors in wet conditions. "It was good training. We got lucky with the weather and had good sensations on the cobbles," he reported. Nothing is left to chance. Tour of Flanders 2026: the prelude to history Before Roubaix, there is the Tour of Flanders on April 5. For Pogačar, this race offers the chance to claim a third Flanders victory — and the field assembled for this edition may be the strongest in living memory. The three-way showdown between Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, and Wout van Aert, with the added wildcard of Remco Evenepoel making his Flanders debut for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, is the kind of matchup that cycling fans rarely get to witness. Van der Poel arrives in particularly ominous form. Despite nursing a hand injury from the Milan-Sanremo crash, the Dutch champion delivered a breathtaking 42.2km solo victory at the E3 Saxo Classic — sending a clear message to his rivals. He is the defending Paris-Roubaix champion and a three-time winner of the race. If Pogačar is going to complete his Monument collection at Roubaix, he will need to go through Van der Poel. And that is never easy. The historic club: only three Riders have won all five monuments The magnitude of what Pogačar is chasing becomes even clearer when you realize how few riders have ever accomplished it. In the entire history of professional cycling, only three men have won all five Monuments: Eddy Merckx — the original and still the greatest, with 19 Monument victories in total Rik Van Looy — Belgian champion who completed the set in the 1960s Roger De Vlaeminck — Belgian cobble specialist, winner of four Paris-Roubaix editions No rider in the modern era has come close. Not Bernard Hinault, not Laurent Fignon, not even the great champions of the 1990s and 2000s. If Pogačar wins Paris-Roubaix, he will be the first rider in over half a century to join this club. Eddy Merckx himself has publicly stated his belief that Pogačar can do it. Pogačar's own words: Roubaix over a fifth Tour de France What is perhaps most striking is what Pogačar himself has said about his priorities. When asked to choose between a fifth Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix, he gave an answer that revealed everything about his mindset: "I think I would choose Roubaix because I won already the Tour four times. The difference between zero and one is bigger than the difference between four and five." This is the thinking of a rider who is not chasing numbers for their own sake, but genuinely driven by the challenge of doing something that seems almost impossible. Paris-Roubaix has never been his race — yet. And that, for Pogačar, is the point. What to expect: key cobble sectors to watch For cycling fans planning to follow the race on April 12, here are the decisive cobble sectors that will likely determine the outcome. The five-star sector of Trouée d'Arenberg (sector 16, approximately 2.4km of brutal cobbles through the forest) is always a key moment of selection. The Mons-en-Pévèle (sector 11, 3km) is where power riders make their moves. And the final assault begins at Carrefour de l'Arbre (sector 4, 2.1km), just 16km from the velodrome — the last place where a winning attack can be launched or where a race lead can be defended. With the right conditions — ideally some rain to make the cobbles slippery and the race more chaotic — the strongest rider tends to prevail. And in 2026, that may well be Tadej Pogačar. Conclusion: A fortnight that could define a career Cycling has given us remarkable champions over the decades. But what Tadej Pogačar is doing right now — at 27, in the prime of a career that already feels historic — is genuinely rare. Two races, two weeks, one chance at immortality. The Tour of Flanders on April 5. Paris-Roubaix on April 12. Whatever happens, we are watching one of the greatest cyclists of all time at the peak of his powers. At EurekaBike, we'll be following every kilometre of cobbles with the same passion that drives every cyclist — whether you're chasing a Monument or just a personal best on your Sunday ride. This is why we love cycling.