Cycling: Van Aert wins: Pogacar misses victory at Paris-Roubaix

Tadej Pogacar missed out on victory at Paris-Roubaix and with it his missing success in the five most important one-day races in cycling. The 27-year-old lost the sprint in the Roubaix velodrome against the Belgian Wout van Aert in the cobblestone classic and, like last year, took second place.

After 258.3 kilometers between Compiègne and Roubaix, Pogacar was only a few centimeters short of the race known as the “Hell of the North”. This means the hunt for the fifth monument will continue for at least another year.

Pogacar’s first defeat since September

Pogacar celebrated his third victory at the Tour of Flanders just last week. He had already won at least once at the other cycling monuments Milan-Sanremo, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy.

Only the three Belgians Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck and Rik Van Looy have managed to win all five races so far. It was the first defeat for Tour champion Pogacar since his World Cup triumph last September.

By Editor