Philippe Gilbert overcame Nils Politt in a dramatic sprint to win the Paris-Roubaix for the first time in his career.

The Belgian hit the front in the closing metres at Roubaix velodrome, ducking down the inside of Politt on the track to triumph after just under six hours of riding on Sunday.

Having already been victorious at the Tour of Flanders, Liege–Bastogne–Liege and the Giro di Lombardia, the 36-year-old now only needs a victory in the Milan-San Remo race to complete the set of cycling's one-day classics.

Gilbert's Deceuninck-QuickStep team-mate Yves Lampaert was next to the cross the line 13 seconds later, while Sep Vanmarcke claimed fourth place ahead of last year's champion Peter Sagan, who faded late on to end hopes of retaining his title.

The 257-kilometre course, including 29 sections of cobbles this year, once again produced plenty of drama - hardly surprising for an event known as 'Hell of the North'.

Tiesj Benoot crashed into a team car, ending his participation. His team, Lotto Soudal, confirmed the Belgian had been taken to hospital for checks.

Gilbert and Politt were part of a six-man breakaway with around 65km to go, working together as a unit to establish a lead of over a minute from the rest.

The group was whittled down to two when Gilbert was the only rider to match Politt's break with 14km left, leaving the pair to fight it out for glory.

 

RESULT
1 Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick Step) 5:58:02  
2 Nils Politt (Team Katusha-Alpecin) +0:13s  
3 Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-Quick Step)
4 Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First) +0:40s 
5 Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:42s  
6 Florian Senechal (Deceuninck-Quick Step) +0:47s
7 Mike Teunissen (Team Jumbo-Visma)  
8 Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step)  
9 Edvaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseille Provence)  
10 Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ)