Thanks to his victory over the Hell of the North, his first in his career, Mathieu Van der Poel joined the very closed circle of riders who won Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix in the same season.
They are four to have achieved this feat: the Belgian Cyrille van Hauwaert (1908), Irish Sean Kelly (1986), German John Degenkolb (2015), certainly the most disappointed runner of Paris-Roubaix 2023 after his fall in the Carrefour de l’Arbre, and now Mathieu Van der Poel.
The Dutchman also joined the circle of riders who finished in the top 2 in the first three Monuments of the season. Because yes, in addition to its two victories, VDP also pocketed second place behind “Handsomeat the Tour of Flanders.
Before him, the Belgian Alfred De Bruyne (1957), the Cannibals Eddy Merckx (1969 et 1975), Roger DeVlaeminck (1977) and Sean Kelly (1984 and 1986) achieved this.