Van der Poel powers to Paris Roubaix victory

ROUBAIX, (Reuters) -

DutchgreatMathieuVander Poel powered his way to his first Paris Roubaix victory on Sunday as he left his rivals reeling with a 15km solo attack at the end of a typically eventful “Hell of theNorth”raceyesterday.

V a n d e r P o e l (Alpecin–Deceuninck) was part of a high-quality sevenrider leading group that hit the front with 50km of the 257kmraceremaining.

Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu Van Der Poelcelebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the race. (REUTERS/ Pascal Rossignol)

SportsMax - Jamaica’s

FormulaWomandriver,Sara Misir, looks forward to raising the roof today at the Dover Raceway as roofing company, Spectrum Systems, announced sponsorship for her 2023 motorsportsseason.

The significant sponsorship deal from Spectrum Systems will support Misir for the duration of the local racing calendar

Misir, the 2022 Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC) ChampionintheMP3&TS1 classes,willopenherseason at the JRDC’s Carnival of SpeedattheDoverRaceway onEasterMonday Misirwill take on a new challenge as she moves up a class to the MP4 category to face the 2022 Champion, veteran Doug“Hollywood”Gore. Misir looks forward to thechallenge.

“I dominated the MP3 classlastseason,soIwanted to take on a new challenge thisyear

The MP4 class has been dominated by “the beast”, Doug Gore, but look out for ‘thebeauty’thisyear!”joked Misir

Meanwhile, CEO of Spectrum Systems Limited, Andrew Stanigar is backing Misirtosucceed.

“Spectrum Systems, Jamaica’s number-one roofing company, is pleased to sponsor Jamaica’s number-one female race car driver,”hesaid.

“We see how much she has dedicated to the race track in 2022 for Formula Woman, the GT Cup Championships and in the JRDCseriesandwewishher allthebestasshetakesonthe MP4class.”

Head of Leep Marketing and manager to Sara Misir, Tanya Lee Perkins, said sponsorship support for athletes can be critical to theirsuccess.

“We are thankful to Spectrum Systems for joining her sponsor pool for 2023 Sponsorships encourage athletic performanceandsignalsthat corporate Jamaica is behind our sports women and men and believe in their talent and ability to inspire,” she said.

Misir is the RJR Sports Foundation Motosports Athlete of the Year in the femalecategory

In 2022 Spectrum System also sponsored Jamaica’s all-female shootingteam,theSuperSix shooters,thatplacedthirdat the Pan American Handgun Championships.

He then launched an attack on the Carrefour de l’Arbrecobbledsectionafter John Degenkolb (Team DSM) crashed heavily and appeared to collide with a spectator

His main rival Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) went with him and it looked like being a straight fight for the title between the pair of them, only for Van Aert to puncture.

ItleftVanderPoelonhis own and there was no stopping the 28-year-old as he put his head down and pedalledhiswaytowardsthe finish at the sun-drenched VelodromeAndre-Petrieux.

Onthesecondoftwolaps around the circuit Van der Poelcouldaffordtomilkthe cheers of the crowd as he crossedtheline.Inthebattle for second place his team mate Jasper Philipsen edged outfellowBelgianVanAert.

Philipsen and Van Aert finished 46 seconds in arrears.

Former road world champion Mads Pedersen wasfourthwithStefanKung fifth and Italian Filippo Gannasixth.

Van der Poel’s win took his Monument tally to three having won this year’s Milan-San Remo in dominant fashion and also taking victory at last year’s TourofFlanders.

“I had one of my best days on the bike,” he told Eurosport “I felt really strong and tried to do a couple of attacks earlier but itwasreallyhardtodropthe guys. “On the last sector, DegenkolbhadacrashthenI had to close a gap to Wout andIthinkhehadaflattyre.I found myself alone in front and just rode as hard as I could.”

Van der Poel has some sympathy for Van Aert with whom, along with Tadej Pogacar, he shares a rivalry that is arguably one of the mostexcitingformanyyears inmen’scycling.

“When I passed him, his pacewaslow Iknewhehad problem, but didn’t know it was a flat tyre It’s unfortunate, maybe we would have gone as two to thefinishline,”hesaid.

“It’s unfortunate but it’s part of the race. You need goodluckandgoodlegsand Ihadbothtoday.”