Spring Classics

Stuyven and Vermeersch: The Roubaix Dark Horses Who Lit Up Flanders

CYCLING LOOKOUT • 7 APRIL 2026

While Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel commanded the headlines at Sunday's Tour of Flanders, two riders deeper in the results sheet delivered performances that should alarm every favourite heading into Paris-Roubaix on April 12. Jasper Stuyven and Florian Vermeersch — one a Soudal-QuickStep veteran with a Milan-San Remo title on his palmarès, the other UAE Team Emirates-XRG's cobblestone lieutenant — both delivered top-ten finishes that confirmed their status as genuine Roubaix contenders.

Stuyven led home the chase group in sixth place, timing 6:24:35, and was visibly strong throughout the race's closing phase. The 33-year-old Belgian has long been one of the most underrated classics riders in the peloton — a 2021 Milan-San Remo winner who combines the power to survive the cobbles with the tactical intelligence to exploit moments of confusion in the finale. His Soudal-QuickStep team boss Patrick Lefevere has been bullish about Stuyven's Roubaix prospects all spring. "It is not the first year that a surprise comes out of the box," Lefevere said after Flanders. "Jasper and Dylan are ready."

The reference to Dylan is Dylan van Baarle, the 2022 Paris-Roubaix winner who gives Soudal-QuickStep a rare luxury: two former Monument winners in the same cobbled squad. Van Baarle's Flanders was quieter than Stuyven's, but the Dutchman's Roubaix pedigree is beyond question. A team with two riders capable of winning on the pavé creates tactical options that the big three — Pogačar, Van der Poel and Wout van Aert — will have to account for. If one is marked, the other can attack. It is the kind of dual threat that has won Paris-Roubaix before.

Vermeersch, meanwhile, delivered arguably the most important domestique performance of the entire Flanders race. The 24-year-old Belgian was instrumental on the Molenberg, driving the pace at the front of the peloton to set up an elite selection that ultimately played into Pogačar's hands. It was selfless, exhausting work — the kind of effort that rarely makes highlight reels but fundamentally shapes race outcomes. And yet Vermeersch still finished in the top ten, crossing the line at the same time as Stuyven, a testament to his extraordinary engine.

Vermeersch's importance to UAE's Roubaix campaign cannot be overstated. His recently extended contract through 2029 reflects the team's long-term commitment to supporting Pogačar on the cobbles, but Vermeersch is far more than a super-domestique. He finished second at Paris-Roubaix in 2021 as a 22-year-old neo-professional with Lotto-Soudal, a result that announced him as one of the most naturally gifted cobblestone riders of his generation. If Pogačar punctures, crashes, or is neutralised by Van der Poel's tactical nous, Vermeersch is the kind of rider who could inherit the race.

The flat, attritional nature of Roubaix also favours both riders more than the hilly parcours of Flanders. Stuyven's strength is his ability to maintain a high tempo over long stretches of pavé without burning matches — the kind of riding that wears down rivals gradually rather than dropping them with a single acceleration. Vermeersch, similarly, is built for endurance on the cobbles: tall, powerful, and capable of absorbing the relentless vibration that the 54.8 kilometres of pavé between Compiègne and the Vélodrome inflict on every rider in the field.

History supports the dark horse thesis. Paris-Roubaix is the Monument most likely to produce an unexpected winner. The race's chaotic nature — punctures, crashes, echelon splits, and the sheer physical toll of the cobbles — means that the strongest rider on paper does not always prevail. Van Baarle's 2022 solo victory came after the pre-race favourites marked each other into submission. Stuyven's 2021 San Remo win was built on the same principle: patience, positioning, and the nerve to attack when others hesitate.

With five days until the peloton rolls out of Compiègne, the conversation will rightly focus on Pogačar's Monument sweep bid and Van der Poel's four-peat quest. But the wisest observers will be watching Stuyven and Vermeersch closely. In a race where chaos is the only certainty, the riders who lit up Flanders from outside the spotlight may yet have the last word on the cobbles of the Hell of the North.

Stuyven and Vermeersch: The Roubaix Dark Horses Who Lit Up Flanders

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