From Pogacar’s near crash to team cars trading paint - Roubaix chaos you didn't see on TV

Earlier in the day, Florian Vermeersch's race had ended in the worst possible place. Tadej Pogačar's key domestique crashed in the Arenberg Forest and was left with no option but to walk out through the back of the trouée. He'd come to Roubaix expecting far more.

It wasn't just the riders fighting for position. On the approach to the very first cobbled sector, team cars from NSN and Soudal Quick-Step clattered into each other, jockeying for space. Neither driver gave an inch, in a somewhat of a last of the late breakers.

Fresh footage confirmed just how many risks Pogačar took in the closing kilometres on the Carrefour de l'Arbre to shake off Wout van Aert, pushing the limits on cobbles where a single slip could have cost everything.

The Forest was even crueller to Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman's bid for a record-breaking fourth consecutive victory was already hanging by a thread when a second puncture killed it entirely. Roadside footage showed him standing motionless, waiting for his spare bike, watching helplessly as rider after rider flew past him before the exit of the trouée.

Footage on Instagram captured the sheer madness of the Belgian fans as Wout van Aert crossed the line. Bars, fan zones, living rooms, it didn't matter where they were watching. The reaction was instant and deafening. For a rider who has come so close so many times at Roubaix, this one clearly meant as much to the country as it did to the man himself.