Mathieu van der Poel towered above his rivals to retain the "Hell of the North" Paris-Roubaix bike race title on April 7, a week after burnishing his reputation with his third victory in the revered Tour of Flanders.
Wearing the reigning world champion's rainbow jersey, the 29year-old Belgian is not so much the man to beat, as the man who almost cannot be beaten.
For cycling purists, the Tour of Flanders is an unofficial world championships, and on March 31 van der Poel crushed all his rivals in the race in Belgium.
His Paris-Roubaix time of 5hr 25min 58sec was recorded as the quickest in the race's history.
Van der Poel became only the 10th rider to win both cobbled Monuments the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix - in the same season and only the second rider to do it with the rainbow jersey after Rik van Looy in 1962.
He is already one of the all-time greats of one-day road cycling, and he was cheered over every cobble on the final 60km of his solo break and lauded by key rival Mads Pedersen on arrival.
"Mathieu was in his own league.
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