After success at Flanders last weekend, all eyes were on Peter Sagan at today’s Paris-Roubaix, but by the finish line in the famous Roubaix velodrome it was not to be for the UCI World Champion as he finished in 11th position. Despite not being the result he was after, it was a hugely gutsy ride that saw him chasing for over 100km after getting caught behind a split, never giving up until the end.
After missing a select group that slipped clear with just over 100km to go, ahead of the Trouée d’Arenberg, after a crash in front of him, Peter was on the back foot after a very fast and frenetic race all day. His chase group managed to get to within 30 seconds off the front group but they never managed to claw their way back.
“After all there was nothing wrong with Peter’s legs today, the race unfolded against his favour and that’s racing,” explained Lars Michaelsen when analysing the race at the finish. “When the other teams see how he won in Gent – Wevelgem and Flanders then they will attack earlier than expected. It had already been a hard race when the move came today and it worked against us.
“We lost Oscar Gatto to a crash with about 120km to go, damaging his hand and he will have some examinations now to see if any damage has been done, but he was to be a key rider for Peter in the final parts of the race.”
The racing was on from the start in Compiègne as attack after attack failed. With nothing getting clear for over 70km finally a group of 16 formed at the front, at the same time as the peloton splintered into three main groups in an exposed section of crosswinds – a warning of the hard day of racing still to come.
As the race settled into a rhythm and the cobblestone sectors started in earnest, the breakaway continued to pull out their advantage towards the three-minute mark. It was approaching the 100km to go point when the turning point came in the race for Tinkoff as one of the many crashes in the main group caught Peter out, and away from the action as a select group of favourites formed at the front of the race.
Michaelsen continued: “We hoped to try and get a rider in the early move to then be able to help Peter later but this didn’t work out. The guys did a good job in looking after him in the first half of the race but after the split when he was chasing he was isolated. Juraj Sagan did a strong ride but he was also disappointed himself not to have the power to bring the gap down more. Other teams had the numbers in front and behind we were caught out.”
With other teams well represented at the front, Peter was isolated in his chase behind and the gap was stretching out. The two front groups merged as more and more riders fell away all over to crashes and tired legs, but Peter kept pushing on with Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) to try and close the gap.
Looking back over the race, Peter admitted that luck was against him today. “Everybody before was asking me if I was going to win or not but this is Paris-Roubaix and you never know what is going to happen. It’s a great race, and really historic, but one that is very hard to win. All of the teams come here and make their own strategies for the race, and today the two favourites were caught behind a crash while other teams had numbers at the front to control things. I was involved in two crashes already before the Arenberg sector and I was already in the second group there and without any cooperation at the front it was hard to get back.
“Oscar had a heavy crash and some of the others also came down – it was a crazy day.”
It’s a well known fact that you need both luck and great bike handling skills in this race to stay upright and Peter showed just how good his skills are when he had to hop over a falling Cancellara, just staying upright, but it was a big dent in the chase as the gap extended further. “We were cooperating with Fabian but after he crashed we lost momentum – when he came down I jumped and managed to just get over – I was very lucky to not crash. From that point I think the race was over for me.” As the kilometres ticked by the gap remained and any chances of fighting for victory faded.
In the lead group attacks in the latter cobblestone sectors whittled the selection down to just five riders. These five continued to attack each other to the end, but as the entered the velodrome and took the bell lap they were all back together and the win was still anyones. But it was eventually the experienced Mathew Hayman of Orica-GreenEDGE who took the honours in the final sprint for the line.
Race Result
1. Mathew Hayman (AUS) Orica-GreenEDGE 5:51:53
2. Tom Boonen (BEL) Etixx-QuickStep +00:00:00
3. Ian Stannard (GBR) Team Sky +00:00:00
4. Sep Vanmarke (BEL) LottoNL-Jumbo +00:00:00
5. Edvald Boassen Hagen (NOR) Dimension Data +00:00:03
11. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff +00:02:20
51. Juraj Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff +00:14:23
73. Nikolay Trusov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:14:23
74. Pavel Brutt (RUS) Tinkoff +00:14:23
