Strava and Oliver Naesen confirm it: Van Aert, Pogačar and Mick van Dijke were flying at Paris-Roubaix

Oliver Naesen knew early on at Paris-Roubaix that Wout van Aert was having a special day. The Belgian from Decathlon CMA CGM used up his energy early in the race, but kept popping up near the favourites despite the setbacks.

Naesen joined the HLN Wielerpodcast via a phone call to share more insight into the chaos of the opening hours. The race averaged 48.9 kilometres per hour across the full distance, but in the early stages that average sat well above 50 km/h. It marked the fifth consecutive year in which the fastest Paris-Roubaix on record was ridden.

"Our strategy was to get Stan Dewulf and/or me into the breakaway. That was the way to still get a top ten or higher," Naesen explained. "So we'd already burned through our ammunition before we even reached the first cobbles. I backed the plan, but for me it meant a brutal first half of the race."

Despite all that, Naesen still finished 39th and made it to the Roubaix Vélodrome. He also saw the main favourites come past him at various points. "I didn't speak to Wout, but I saw him. He punctured on the first or second sector, where it was already going flat out. The speed at which he passed me on the fifth sector of the day — that was something else."

"At that point I knew: he's flying, and he'll finish high up if he avoids more bad luck," Naesen said. "I witnessed Wout's puncture, I saw Pogačar's setback and comeback from close range, and after the Arenberg Forest I was there again after Mathieu's hold-up too. So I actually ended up in shot quite a lot."

The Strava files from Pogačar and Van Aert back up Naesen's eye-witness account. Pogačar's entire ride is plastered with personal records and Strava KOMs. The Slovenian from UAE Emirates-XRG covered the last 94 kilometres in 2 hours, 5 minutes and 15 seconds.

Stefan Küng (now at Tudor) is the only non-2026 rider in the top ten on that Strava segment. He was over two minutes slower across the same distance in 2023. Pogačar and Van Aert also share the KOM on the Pont-Thibault à Ennevelin segment. And there's more.

Van Aert's upload confirms exactly what Naesen described. On the cobbles of Briastre à Solesmes — the fifth sector of the day, where he had to chase back after his puncture — Van Aert powered through in 1 minute 14 seconds at an average of 39.5 km/h. The front group covered the same sector at 37 km/h, five seconds slower.

As for the sprint? Van Aert hit a top speed of 62.6 km/h in the Vélodrome and reached his peak in the final bend. Pogačar actually clocked a higher maximum speed at 63.6 km/h, but Van Aert held his effort longer and had already opened the decisive gap with his jump.

A special mention goes to Mick van Dijke. From sector 17 to the finish in Roubaix, the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider covered 80.9 kilometres faster than anyone else on Sunday. The sixth-placed finisher was a full 12 seconds quicker than Van Aert over that distance.

On the Thursday before Paris-Roubaix, Mathieu van Der Poel and Jasper Philipsen spoke abou the constantly rising average race speeds at the Alpecin-Premier Tech press conference. "We cannot go faster and faster", said van der Poel, long before Roubaix had even started. "I think this is a bit the limit, to be honest."

As van der Poel predicted during the press conference, the relentless fight for the breakaway can push the speed up right from the off. "If you already race one hour or two hours to get in the breakaway, of course, the speed is high. And then also the final starts way sooner than it was in the past.

This is exactly what happened at Paris-Roubaix 2026. The early fight was so intense, that no real breakaway formed at all. Taking van der Poel's thoughts into account, plus the dry weather, it no wonder that the average race speed was a whisker shy of 50 KMPH — the fastest ever Roubaix. Again.

Would anyone bet against going over the 50 mark next year?