At around 4:20pm local time, time seemed to stand still in the middle of the Roubaix Velodrome, as Wout van Aert crossed the finish line first at the end of Paris-Roubaix, ahead of Tadej Pogačar. The crowd went wild, Van Aert was mobbed, and the business of explaining the race went on apace. Less than two hours later, time stood still again, this time as Franziska Koch out-sprinted Marianne Vos at the end of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, and the reaction ensued once more.
For the first five editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the organisers, ASO, had done something almost unique in WorldTour racing: hold the women’s race on a different day to the men’s race. It was something special, almost magical, giving the race a chance to breathe, to exist on its own, and for us in the media to tell its full story, and not be distracted by something else.
