Archiv der Kategorie: Frühjahrskassiker

Paris-Roubaix – 2024 – 260 Km

Eintagsrennen, Ergebnisse, Frühjahrskassiker, Strassenrennen, Teamnews, Weltcup und Klassiker, , , , , ,

Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu Van der Poel delivered a masterpiece in the 2024 Paris-Roubaix, pulling off a long-range solo attack and a number of records that now belong in history. Following his Tour de Flanders victory last Sunday, he becomes the 10th-ever rider to win the cobbled Monument double, and the second-ever to achieve it while wearing the rainbow jersey after Rik van Looy in 1962. His 60-kilometre solo ride to the Vélodrome André Pétrieux becomes the longest winning move in the 21st century, while his 3’00” winning margin is the largest in the last 20 editions of the race. His teammate Jasper Philipsen crossed the finish line 2nd, re-enacting the one-two that Alpecin-Deceuninck already sealed in 2023, with Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen rounding out the podium.

1 VAN DER POEL Mathieu NED Alpecin-Deceuninck 05:25:58
2 PHILIPSEN Jasper BEL Alpecin-Deceuninck 03:00
3 PEDERSEN Mads DEN Lidl-Trek 03:00
4 POLITT Nils GER UAE Team Emirates 03:00
5 KÜNG Stefan SUI Groupama-FDJ 03:15
6 VERMEERSCH Gianni BEL Alpecin-Deceuninck 03:47
7 PITHIE Laurence NZL Groupama-FDJ 03:48
8 MEEUS Jordi BEL BORA-hansgrohe 04:47
9 WÆRENSKJOLD Søren NOR Uno-X Mobility 04:47
10 MIHKELS Madis EST Intermarché-Wanty 04:47
11 DEGENKOLB John GER Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 04:47
12 WRIGHT Fred GBR Bahrain Victorious 04:47
13 VAN GESTEL Dries BEL TotalEnergies 04:47
14 FEDOROV Yevgeniy KAZ Astana Qazaqstan Team 04:47
15 WELLENS Tim BEL UAE Team Emirates 04:47
16 VAN DIJKE Tim NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 04:47
17 PIDCOCK Tom GBR INEOS Grenadiers 06:20
18 MALECKI Kamil POL Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team 06:22
19 VAN DIJKE Mick NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 06:22
20 SLOCK Liam BEL Lotto Dstny 06:22
21 KRISTOFF Alexander NOR Uno-X Mobility 06:28
22 TEUNISSEN Mike NED Intermarché-Wanty 06:28
23 BIERMANS Jenthe BEL ARKEA-B&B HOTELS 06:28
24 NAESEN Oliver BEL Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale 06:28
25 LAPORTE Christophe FRA Team Visma | Lease a Bike 06:28
26 BISSEGGER Stefan SUI EF Education-EasyPost 06:28
27 ABRAHAMSEN Jonas NOR Uno-X Mobility 06:33
28 TILLER Rasmus NOR Uno-X Mobility 07:00
29 BITTNER Pavel CZE Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 07:00
30 GACHIGNARD Thomas FRA TotalEnergies 07:01
31 VAN ASBROECK Tom BEL Israel-Premier Tech 07:16
32 EEKHOFF Nils NED Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 07:16
33 STEIMLE Jannik GER Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team 07:16
34 PAGE Hugo FRA Intermarché-Wanty 07:16
35 ALLEGAERT Piet BEL Cofidis 07:16
36 LAMPAERT Yves BEL Soudal Quick-Step 07:16
37 ASKEY Lewis GBR Groupama-FDJ 07:16
38 JACOBS Johan SUI Movistar Team 07:16
39 DECLERCQ Tim BEL Lidl-Trek 07:16
40 DE PESTEL Sander BEL Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale 07:16
41 GRADEK Kamil POL Bahrain Victorious 07:16
42 VAN LERBERGHE Bert BEL Soudal Quick-Step 07:16
43 VACEK Mathias CZE Lidl-Trek 07:22
44 HAGENES Per Strand NOR Team Visma | Lease a Bike 07:29
45 PLANCKAERT Edward BEL Alpecin-Deceuninck 08:05
46 SARREAU Marc FRA Groupama-FDJ 08:09
47 THEUNS Edward BEL Lidl-Trek 08:40
48 SWIFT Connor GBR INEOS Grenadiers 08:47
49 WALSCHEID Max GER Team Jayco-AlUla 09:34
50 PASQUALON Andrea ITA Bahrain Victorious 09:34
51 BJERG Mikkel DEN UAE Team Emirates 09:34
52 VERMOTE Julien BEL Team Visma | Lease a Bike 09:34
53 HOOLE Daan NED Lidl-Trek 09:34
54 TURGIS Anthony FRA TotalEnergies 09:34
55 DUJARDIN Sandy FRA TotalEnergies 09:34
56 VAN MOER Brent BEL Lotto Dstny 09:34
57 GAUTHERAT Pierre FRA Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale 09:34
58 SWIFT Ben GBR INEOS Grenadiers 09:34
59 PLANCKAERT Baptiste BEL Intermarché-Wanty 09:38
60 SÉNÉCHAL Florian FRA ARKEA-B&B HOTELS 09:45

172 riders took the start on the 121st edition of Paris-Roubaix at 11:26, off to ride 259,7 kilometres between Compiègne and the Vélodrome André Pétrieux in Roubaix with 29 cobbled sectors to be covered. 2022 winner Dylan van Baarle (Visma | Lease a Bike) was a last-minute withdrawal, and so were UAE Team Emirates’ Michael Vink and Astana Qazaqstan’s Michael Mørkøv. It took ‘only’ 22 kilometres for Per Strand Hagenes (Visma | Lease a Bike), Rasmus Tiller (Uno X Mobility), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Marco Haller (Bora-Hansgrohe), Liam Slock (Lotto-dstny), Gleb Syritsa (Astana Qazaqstan) and Kamil Malecki (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) to go clear. Shortly after, Dusan Rajovic (Bahrain Victorius) and Dries de Bondt (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) also took off in a bid to join the breakaway that was only successful 80 kilometres into the race. A big crash at kilometer 37 meant the end of the race for Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan and Ineos Grenadiers’ Elia Viviani, affecting as well the likes of UAE Team Emirates’ Nils Politt, EF’s Alberto Bettiol and Intermarché’s Laurenz Rex amongst others.

Alpecin-Deceuninck kept the race on a tight leash
54,1 kilometres were covered in the first hour of racing as the riders benefited from remarkable tailwinds. The maximum gap for the break was clocked at 1’40”, 76 kilometres into the race, over a peloton led by Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck. The cobbles started with Sector 29, Troisvilles to Inchy (km 96 – 2,2 km) ***, upon which the break only had 1’25” on a pack that was blown the pieces by Alpecin-Deceuninck’s steady tempo on the pavé. The breakaway was eventually reeled in 120 kilometres into the race by a 40-strong group with Mathieu Van der Poel’s teammates at the helm. Meanwhile, podium contenders such as Visma’s Christophe Laporte, Soudal’s Yves Lampaert, Arkéa’s Luca Mozzato or Movistar’s Oier Lazkano and Iván García Cortina were dropped for good. Josuha Tarling’s race came to an end at sector 24 from Capelle to Ruesnes (km 129,3 – 1,7 km) *** as the race jury disqualified him for holding onto the Ineos Grenadiers’ team car following a puncture.

First attack by Van der Poel in the Arenberg Forest
Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen led the front group into the Trouée d’Arenberg (km 164,4 – 2,3 km) *****, where Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) launched a powerful acceleration. Only his teammate Jasper Philipsen, Mick van Dijke (Visma | Lease a Bike) and the aforementioned Pedersen could keep up with his effort, that was frustrated just out of the cobbles when Philipsen punctured. The front group reformed, and three riders rose to the occasion to establish a new breakaway out of Sector 18 from Wallers to Hélesmes (km 167.4 — 1.6 km) ***: Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) and Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck). The latter did not cooperate as he was protecting the chances of his leader, and the move was shut down by Lidl-Trek with 68 kilometres to go.

The rainbow jersey powered away 60 kilometres from the finish
Vermeersch led the front group into sector 13, Orchies (km 199,5 – 1,7 km) ***, where Van der Poel attacked with 60 kilometres to go to power solo up the road. No one could match his acceleration and the Dutch rider quickly built a sizable gap, clocked at 3’00” with 10 kilometers to go, and therefore defended successfully his 2023 victory. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates), Stefan Küng, Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) went clear from the chasing group during the Mons-en-Pévèle (km 211,1 – 3 km) ***** cobbled sector, fighting for the two remaining podium spots. Pithie crashed out of contention with 30 kilometers to go, while Küng got dropped in Gruson (km 244,8 – 1,1 km) **. In the three-up sprint that settled things down between the chasers at the Vélodrome, Philipsen took the best of Pedersen and Politt.

Paris – Roubaix Espoirs – U23 – 166 Km

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Plomi Foto

1 TEUTENBERG Tim Torn GER Lidl-Trek Future Racing 03:48:29
2 DONALDSON Robert GBR Trinity Racing 00:00
3 ORINS Robin BEL Lotto Dstny Dev. 00:00
4 LE HUITOUZE Eddy FRA Groupama-FDJ Conti 00:15
5 VAN MECHELEN Vlad BEL Dev. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 00:15
6 ASKEY Ben GBR Groupama-FDJ Conti 00:15
7 ARTZ Huub NED Wanty-ReUz-Technord 00:15
8 DEL GROSSO Tibor NED Alpecin-Deceuninck Dev. Team 00:15
9 VERSTRYNGE Emiel BEL Alpecin-Deceuninck Dev. Team 00:15
10 THORNLEY Callum GBR Trinity Racing 00:15
11 HUISING Menno NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike Dev. 00:15
12 DOCKX Aaron BEL Alpecin-Deceuninck Dev. Team 00:21
13 BELMANS Lennert BEL Alpecin-Deceuninck Dev. Team 01:25
14 L’HOTE Antoine FRA Decathlon AG2R La Mon. Dev. 02:33
15 SIMMONS Colby USA Team Visma | Lease a Bike Dev. 02:33

Paris-Roubaix Femmes – 148,5 Km

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1 KOPECKY Lotte BEL Team SD Worx-Protime 03:47:13
2 BALSAMO Elisa ITA Lidl-Trek 00:00
3 GEORGI Pfeiffer GBR Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 00:00
4 VOS Marianne NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 00:00
5 KRAAK Amber NED FDJ-SUEZ 00:00
6 VAN DIJK Ellen NED Lidl-Trek 00:06
7 WIEBES Lorena NED Team SD Worx-Protime 00:28
8 BERTEAU Victoire FRA Cofidis Women Team 00:28
9 LE NET Marie FRA FDJ-SUEZ 00:28
10 LE COURT Kim MRI AG Insurance-Soudal Team 00:28
11 CHABBEY Elise SUI CANYON//SRAM Racing 00:28
12 VERHULST-WILD Gladys FRA FDJ-SUEZ 00:28
13 BORGHESI Letizia ITA EF Education-Cannondale 00:28
14 VON BERSWORDT Sophie NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 00:28
15 KUIJPERS Evy NED Fenix-Deceuninck 00:28
16 BACKSTEDT Zoe GBR CANYON//SRAM Racing 00:28
17 SCHWEINBERGER Christina AUT Fenix-Deceuninck 01:05
18 SIERRA Arlenis CUB Movistar Team 01:05
19 NOOIJEN Lieke NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 01:05
20 TRUYEN Marthe BEL Fenix-Deceuninck 01:05

Kopecky, a rainbow icon on the cobbles

All eyes were on Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) this Saturday, with the rainbow jersey on her shoulders and a status of hot favourite for the 4th edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift… And the Belgian icon delivered a stunning victory in the André-Pétrieux velodrome after an impressive performance all day long. She was the most active rider on the cobbles to make the selection. Eventually, as a group of six favourites entered the velodrome, SD Worx-Protime’s leader, a world champion on the road and on the track as well, made the most of her power to get the better of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), with Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) finishing 4th. Kopecky is the first Belgian winner of Paris-Roubaix since Philippe Gilbert in the men’s edition, in 2019. She’s also the first reigning world champion to claim the winner’s cobble since Peter Sagan in 2018.

The start from Denain, with two loops to open up the race, is marked by strong winds. Already wary of the breakaway after Alison Jackson’s triumph in 2023, the peloton also fear potential echelons.
The tension is high, leading to several crashes including Jackson’s, and the early attackers are kept under control. Victoire Joncheray (Komugi-Grand Est) sets off at km 15 and opens a gap of 1’50’’ after 25km, but the peloton get back to her some 30 kilometres before the first cobble sector, from Hornaing to Wandignies (km 66).

Kopecky unleashed
The tension and the speeds increase as the peloton get closer to the cobblestones. Marianne Vos’ Visma | Lease a Bike, Emma Norsgaard Bjerg’s Movistar and Pfeiffer Georgi’s DSM Firmenich-PostNL are among the teams involved in driving the peloton. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) quickly shows her rainbow jersey at the very front. Lidl-Trek also show their collective strength and participate in the early selection.

Kopecky pushes the pace on sector 15, from Tilloy to Sars-et-Rosières (2.4km, 4*), to make a first selection with 70km to go. The world champion does everything, even fixing her handlebar with an Allen key provided by her team car.
And she goes on to the attack again on sector 12, in Auchy-lez-Orchies (2.7km, 4*). This time, only three riders can follow her, 53km away from the finish: Marianne Vos, Peiffer Georgi and Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck).

FDJ-Suez on the move
Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) makes sure they’re caught on the iconic cobbles of Mons-en-Pévèle (3km, 5*). Kopecky tries again with 45km to go, unsuccessfully. DSM Firmenich-PostNL, Visma | Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek take turns at the front of a 30-woman peloton.
Jade Wiel (FDJ-Suez) goes solo with 33.5km to go, just like Elisa Longo Borghini when she won Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. The Frenchwoman opens a gap of 30’’ but she’s eventually caught on the cobbles of Bourghelles to Wannehain (1.1km, 3*). Her teammate Amber Kraak immediately counter-attacks and Van Dijk joins her.

A thriller until the end
Kopecky accelerates again in Camphin-en-Pévèle (Km 128.6 – Sector 5, 1.8km, 4*) and a group of six riders emerge on the Carrefour de l’Arbre with the Belgian world champion, Van Dijk, Kraak, Georgi, Vos and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek). Vos and Kopecky attack again and again but they can’t get rid of each other.

As a 10-woman chase group featuring Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) gets closer in the finale, Van Dijk sacrifices herself to drive the lead group into the velodrome with a gap of 20’’. Balsamo and Vos open up the sprint but they can’t resist Kopecky’s mighty sprint to claim her spot in the legend of the Hell of the North.

ESCAPE FROM HELL – (V/V) 2023: Alison Jackson

Eintagsrennen, Frauenradsport, Frühjahrskassiker, History, Strassenrennen, , , , ,

2023: Alison Jackson
In the end, it’s not always the strongest who wins. Certainly not in cycling, and most definitely not in Paris-Roubaix. On the roads of the Hell of the North, the „strongest“ can just as easily win in the legendary velodrome as get bogged down in the Trouée d’Arenberg. Year after year, the cobblestone crushers crash in the Mons-en-Pévèle sector or collapse in the Carrefour de l’Arbre – and one cannot underestimate the traps of the asphalt either. On these unique roads, an aspirant for glory needs to be strong, but also brave and lucky. Paris-Roubaix smiles on the bold, even those who have been out there the longest. In a race where chaos is always the order of the day, early attackers create unsuspected openings. Conquerors of the Hell of the North, they tell us about their heavenly day on the cobbles.

Alison Jackson : “Don’t think, just do”
“In the three editions that we’ve seen, Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift has been won in a different way on a different part of the course”, Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) celebrates as she gets ready to defend her crown in the French Monument. In 2021, for the grand premiere, British icon Lizzie Deignan powered to the front as soon the race hit the cobbles, flying to victory through a magnificent one woman show. A year later, the favourites raised hell on the cobbles and Elisa Longo Borghini eventually resisted her fierce rivals. In 2023, Jackson invented another scenario.
A seasoned rider, the Canadian champ enjoyed her first tastes of the Hell of the North (24th in 2021, 13th in 2022) and felt she had the means to pave her own way to victory towards Roubaix. It was all a matter of creating the right opportunity, emulating the long range attackers who have historically shined in the men’s edition of Paris-Roubaix.
The opening circuit gave Jackson and the baroudeurs the proper terrain to get away. Once they reached the cobbles, an absolute thriller was on, marked by a mass crash in the chase group with 37 km to go and an extraordinarily tight finale. Ten kilometres away from glory, the gap was down to 15’’. In any other race, it would have been a done deal… Not in Roubaix. Three decades after Steve Bauer saw Eddy Planckaert pipe him with the smallest margin on the André-Pétrieux velodrome, Jackson became the first Canadian to ever win a Monument.

KM 0. ROLL WITH INTENT : “Always better to be ahead”
“I had done quite well in the previous editions and I always said: ‘If I have a clean run, no crashes, then I think I could win the race.’ I came with the attitude that it’s always better to be ahead. Any moment when you find yourself at the front of a bike race, be aggressive, make an attack. So that was gonna be my approach to the race although I thought I would be doing that later in the race, more in some of the harder parts. I had a few other teammates that their role was to try and get in that early break but there was a big group going and it was important that we were in it, so I went. It was the right moment and, no second guessing, the reaction right away was to jump in it. Here’s the break! And then you have to believe that it’s gonna work out. You don’t go in a breakaway if you don’t think it’s gonna go far.”

KM 25. GIVE THE BREAK A CHANCE : “Every little bit mattered”
“The key was just to ride. I believed in this breakaway and that showed everyone that they could also believe. It was leading by example. Susanne Andersen was up there for Uno-X. We were teammates once upon a time and she’s a very smart bike racer. Knowing that she was always pulling through, I was always pulling through, and the same with the others. Even if the group catches us later on, we’re still in the finale, we can get a great result and we’ve put ourselves in a position to avoid crashes, chose our lines on the cobbles… So I have full commitment and it encourages others to have full commitment, so the gap grows. I’m hearing on the radio: ‘You’re doing too much work.’ People told me all the time that’s what they said when they watched: ‘Oh she’s working too much, she’s not gonna win.’ But that’s how we maintained that gap. Every little bit mattered to keep it going.”

KM 80. THRIVE THROUGH CHAOS : “I got word through the radio there was a big crash”
“I was not so much aware of the situation behind. All I knew was the time gap – up to six minutes, that was really good. And just listening and watching, hearing from the team car where that time gap was, you could get a sense of what was happening behind. But because we had almost every team in that front group, I knew that the chase behind wasn’t gonna be very strong. So the gap was coming down slowly. I got word through the radio that there was a big crash behind so that let our gap go up. I didn’t know who crashed or what it looked like. And also you don’t know what the tactic is behind. At one point, [Lotte] Kopecky attacked but she dropped her teammates from SD Worx, so she was alone and she couldn’t chase the whole group… These dynamics didn’t help them behind. But you know, the gap was coming down closer and closer. At one point, it was nine seconds.”

KM 135. TOO LATE TO GIVE UP : “That’s what I love about bike racing”
“I remember looking behind and seeing the group was very close. Such a small gap usually means the race is over for the breakaway. With 5km to go, I thought : ‘We’ve been out here on the road, alone for 140k, we’re not giving up now!’ You have to commit to the very end. And Roubaix is a very rough race, everybody is tired, so 10 seconds means more than in other occasions. Even if I pulled the group all the way, I would still get 5th and that would be a great result. I’d rather be a part of the front action than change the tactics. Expressing that to the other girls also allowed them to get on board. Three of us drove all the way into the finale. At that moment, if you’re behind, you think you’re gonna get back and you already think of the finale. So they think they’ve caught us and they slow down, while we think they’ve caught us and we go full gas. It creates a new separation and that’s what I love about bike racing, the games, the tactics… Because it’s not just the decisions we make, it’s also the decisions they make behind at that timing that made it so positive for us in the breakaway.”

KM 145.4. GLORY AND PARTY IN THE VÉLODROME : “It’s not your imagination, it’s real life”
“I’m not a track rider, I’m not used to sprinting on a velodrome, but I always asked the trackies how to manage this one. But I mean… On my handlebar, my notes are: ‘Don’t think, just do’. That’s really what it came to. As long as you don’t get boxed in, it’s about what you have left in the legs so that was the plan, to sprint absolutely full gas. Once you cross the line, you know you can own it. This. Is. My. Win. It’s a bit of relief and a bit of knowing you’ve accomplished something so big. No Canadian had ever won a cycling Monument. So to be the first is super meaningful. And then it’s just so exciting. Bike racing is fun but winning is a special type of fun. You ride around the velodrome on the recons, imagining what it would be like to win. Now, it’s not your imagination, it’s real life and you get to experience it. You just want to celebrate with all your teammates and friends and all the people that know you. Of course my teammates are not there yet but it’s whoever, friends that were in the crowd, some journalists, photographers, the team staff… And we start the celebration.”

Alison Jackson :
Born on 14 December 1988 in Vermilion (Canada)
• 3 participations in Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift
Winner in 2023
• 3-time Canadian National Champion
Road race in 2021, 2023 / ITT in 2021
• 9 participations in the UCI World Championships
6th in 2021

Paris-Roubaix 55.7 KM OF COBBLESTONES: DIFFITULTY RATINGS

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Key points :
• The distance covered by cobblestones is slightly longer for the 121st edition of Paris-Roubaix, which will take place on Sunday, April 7. The 29 sectors in the final 165 kilometres total 55.7km (compared with 54.5km in 2023), the largest total in 30 years. The riders will get reacquainted with the Briastre (km 111.5) and Buat hamlet (km 129.5) sectors.
• The 4th edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift will be contested the day before, with an increased total distance (148.5 km vs. 145.4 km in 2023) but an unchanged programme as far as the cobblestones are concerned: the women will take on the same 17 sectors as the final 29.2 km of the men’s race.
• Based on the most recent reconnaissance of the course, conducted on April 2 by Thierry Gouvenou, Paris-Roubaix race director, and Franck Perque, Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift race director, the organisers were able to validate the difficulty ratings assigned to each of the race’s cobblestone sectors, assessed based on their length, the irregularity of the cobblestones, the general condition of the section and its location. The five-star rated sectors remain the Trouée d’Arenberg (# 19), Mons-en-Pévèle (# 11) and the Carrefour de l’Arbre (# 4).

The 29 Paris-Roubaix cobbled sectors

29: Troisvilles in Inchy (km 96 – 2,2 km) ***
28: Viesly in Quiévy (km 102,5 – 1,8 km) ***
27: Quiévy in Saint-Python (km 105,1 – 3,7 km) ****
26: Viesly in Briastre (km 111,3 – 3 km) ***
25: Vertain in Saint-Martin-sur-Ecaillon (km 122,6 – 2,3 km) ***
24: Capelle in Ruesnes (km 129,3 – 1,7 km) ***
23: Artres in Quérénaing (km 138,3 – 1,3 km) **
22: Quérénaing in Maing (km 140,1 – 2,5 km) ***
21: Maing in Monchaux-sur-Ecaillon (km 143,2 – 1,6 km) ***
20: Haveluy in Wallers (km 156,2 – 2,5 km) ****
19: Trouée d’Arenberg (km 164,4 – 2,3 km) *****
18: Wallers in Hélesmes (km 170,4 – 1,6 km) ***
17: Hornaing in Wandignies (km 177,2 – 3,7 km) ****
16: Warlaing in Brillon (km 184,7 – 2,4 km) ***
15: Tilloy in Sars-et-Rosières (km 188,2 – 2,4 km) ****
14: Beuvry in Orchies (km 194,5 – 1,4 km) ***
13: Orchies (km 199,5 – 1,7 km) ***
12: Auchy in Bersée (km 205,6 – 2,7 km) ****
11: Mons-en-Pévèle (km 211,1 – 3 km) *****
10: Mérignies in Avelin (km 217,1 – 0,7 km) **
9: Pont-Thibault in Ennevelin (km 220,5 – 1,4 km) ***
8: Templeuve – L’Epinette (km 225,9 – 0,2 km) *
8: Templeuve – Moulin-de-Vertain (km 226,4 – 0,5 km) **
7: Cysoing in Bourghelles (km 232,8 – 1,3 km) ***
6: Bourghelles in Wannehain (km 235,3 – 1,1 km) ***
5: Camphin-en-Pévèle (km 239,8 – 1,8 km) ****
4: Carrefour de l’Arbre (km 242,5 – 2,1 km) *****
3: Gruson (km 244,8 – 1,1 km) **
2: Willems in Hem (km 251,5 – 1,4 km) **
1: Roubaix (km 258,3 – 0,3 km) *

Paris-Roubaix Challenge

Saturday, April 6th 2024 – 24 hours before Paris-Roubaix and a few hours before Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, a peloton of 5500 amateur riders will measure themselves on the Queen of the Classics and its fabled cobblestone sectors. Three distances are on offer to cyclists, to suit every taste: 70, 145 and
170 kms. Every rider will find an appropriate legend.

Information and registration on parisroubaixchallenge.com and timeto.com

Scheldeprijs – 2024

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Männer 205km:

1 MERLIER Tim BEL Soudal Quick-Step 04:17:04
2 PHILIPSEN Jasper BEL Alpecin-Deceuninck 00:00
3 GROENEWEGEN Dylan NED Team Jayco-AlUla 00:00
4 BOL Cees NED Astana Qazaqstan Team 00:00
5 HOFSTETTER Hugo FRA Israel-Premier Tech 00:00
6 WÆRENSKJOLD Søren NOR Uno-X Mobility 00:00
7 WELSFORD Sam AUS BORA-hansgrohe 00:00
8 MOSCHETTI Matteo ITA Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team 00:00
9 MIHKELS Madis EST Intermarché-Wanty 00:00
10 TRENTIN Matteo ITA Tudor Pro Cycling Team 00:00
11 ALLEGAERT Piet BEL Cofidis 00:00
12 DUPONT Timothy BEL Tarteletto-Isorex 00:00
13 DE KLEIJN Arvid NED Tudor Pro Cycling Team 00:00
14 VAN DE PAAR Jarne BEL Lotto Dstny 00:00
15 VAN GESTEL Dries BEL TotalEnergies 00:00
16 BOMBOI Davide BEL TdT-Unibet 00:00
17 MOZZATO Luca ITA ARKEA-B&B HOTELS 00:00
18 VAN UDEN Casper NED Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 00:00
19 MCLAY Daniel GBR ARKEA-B&B HOTELS 00:00
20 PICKRELL Riley CAN Israel-Premier Tech 00:00
21 THEUNS Edward BEL Lidl-Trek 00:00
22 ARTZ Huub NED Intermarché-Wanty 00:00
23 STOCKMAN Abram BEL TdT-Unibet 00:00
24 MOLANO Sebastian COL UAE Team Emirates 00:00
25 VAN POPPEL Danny NED BORA-hansgrohe 00:00

Frauen 105km:

1 WIEBES Lorena NED Team SD Worx-Protime 03:12:00
2 KOOL Charlotte NED Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 00:00
3 FIDANZA Martina ITA Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling 00:00
4 VAN ROOIJEN Sofie NED VolkerWessels Pro Cycling Team 00:00
5 KNAVEN Mirre NED AG Insurance-NXTG U23 Team 00:00
6 TRUYEN Marthe BEL Fenix-Deceuninck 00:00
7 BALSAMO Elisa ITA Lidl-Trek 00:00
8 CONSONNI Chiara ITA UAE Team ADQ 00:00
9 DE CLERCQ Katrijn BEL Lotto Dstny Ladies 00:00
10 VEENHOVEN Nienke NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 00:00
11 RYSZ Kaja POL Lifeplus Wahoo 00:00
12 GILLESPIE Lara IRL UAE Team ADQ 00:00
13 BAJGEROVA Nikola CZE MAT ATOM Deweloper Wroclaw 00:00
14 VAN ‚T GELOOF Marjolein NED Hess Cycling Team 00:00
15 VAN ROOIJEN Eline NED Team Coop-Repsol 00:00

ESCAPE FROM HELL – (IV/V) 2016 : Mathew Hayman

Eintagsrennen, Frühjahrskassiker, History, Strassenrennen, Weltcup und Klassiker, , , ,

2016 : Mathew Hayman
In the end, it’s not always the strongest who wins. Certainly not in cycling, and most definitely not in Paris-Roubaix. On the roads of the Hell of the North, the „strongest“ can just as easily win in the legendary velodrome as get bogged down in the Trouée d’Arenberg. Year after year, the cobblestone crushers crash in the Mons-en-Pévèle sector or collapse in the Carrefour de l’Arbre – and one cannot underestimate the traps of the asphalt either. On these unique roads, an aspirant for glory needs to be strong, but also brave and lucky. Paris-Roubaix smiles on the bold, even those who have been out there the longest. In a race where chaos is always the order of the day, early attackers create unsuspected openings. Conquerors of the Hell of the North, they tell us about their heavenly day on the cobbles.

Mathew Hayman : “I won in the year when I had the least chance”
Is the early breakaway to Roubaix an Australian specialty? Riders from Down Under waited until the turn of the 21st century to impose their panache on the Classic born in 1896 but they’ve done it in unique fashion. Henk Vogels was the first to break into the top 10 (in 1997 and 1998). Then, in 2007, Stuart O’Grady triumphed in the North after attacking in the first hour of the race. Ten editions later, in the spring of 2016, Mathew Hayman joined him on the list of winners, overturning all the predictions.
At 37, the native of Camperdown, an inner western suburb of Sydney, is a seasoned expert on the cobbled Classics, but he’s no guaranteed winner. Prior to his Roubaix triumph, his professional honours list includes the Challenge Mallorca (2001), the Sachsen Tour (2005), the road race at the Commonwealth Games (2006) and Paris-Bourges (2011). He headed into his 15th appearance in the Hell of the North – he will push his tally to 17, a record in the French Monument – with a wealth of experience at all levels of the race (8th in 2012, OTL in 2002), but with little certainty about his form: six weeks earlier, he fractured his right arm on his first cobbled race of the season, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
For a month, the Australian stepped on his home-trainer and trained on Zwift. In his garage, he prepared to topple the oracles, dazzled by the stars Fabian Cancellara, Tom Boonen and Peter Sagan. For the first time, Paris-Roubaix was broadcast in its entirety on television, from the start in Compiègne to the finish in the André-Pétrieux velodrome. For six hours, the race was breathtaking and, in this extraordinary setting, Hayman delivered a masterclass, making the breakaway before surviving the return of the favourites and frustrating the legend Boonen.

KM 0. PREPARE FOR BATTLE : “Roubaix was on my mind, but I had a lot of doubts“
“When I broke my arm, the doctors put it in a cast and told me it would be six weeks. I looked at my phone and I said: ‘Okay, that’s one day before Roubaix…’ The team doctor was there and he said: ‘That’s not gonna happen’. You think of all the effort you’ve done for the classics, and it gets taken away… I have a track background, from Australia, and I’m used to training indoors, living in Belgium. Zwift wasn’t so big at the time but I decided to give it a shot. I did a lot of double sessions, there were a couple of days I even did three or four sessions.
Roubaix was on my mind, but I had a lot of doubts. I went and raced in Spain the week-end before Roubaix. I had done four or five days on the road before that. And I had one week left. By that point, I was pretty confident but other people in the team were still unsure. In the recon, I had to do a pretty hard ride. I think I did four and half hours on Wednesday and I went pretty deep to make sure… I had missed a lot. But I was pretty happy on that evening. I had good legs, my arm was holding up and I was gonna start in Roubaix on the Sunday.”

KM 80. MAKE THE BREAK : “It was starting to get hard and I was still pretty fresh”
“Actually, I wasn’t supposed to be in the breakaway. I was supposed to kind of wait longer. We had three riders that were designated to jump with the early breakaway. But we’d been racing 70-80 kilometres and those roads out of Compiègne are quite rolling. It was starting to get hard and I was still pretty fresh because I had just been waiting, sitting in the bunch. I actually went twice. The first time, on a little rise, I thought maybe this is the break and I jumped in. And the next time, I actually already had a teammate, Magnus Cort Nielsen, and I didn’t see that until I had already jumped. The group became bigger and bigger and we were 21 in the end.
The collaboration was really good. There was some good riders in there, really good riders. And most of the guys, when you’re in that situation, you want to make the most of it. We never got a lot of time, about one and half, two minutes. We kind of had to keep pushing but at the same time, we weren’t racing each other for the sectors, except for Arenberg of course. Even then, being a group of 20, still you want to be in the front. But every other sector, we just went onto the sector and just rode. I think that’s where you save the energy.”

KM 198. CONTAIN BOONEN : “Tom really tried to make it hard”
“I was like: ‘Okay, I’m just here to get ahead, first I want to get through the first sector, then I want to get through Arenberg’, and then a big one for me was to get through Mons-en-Pévèle, but we got caught before. Some guys like Fabian [Cancellara] had missed the split and there were more splits in the group. They had also been racing since Arenberg and the guys that came across, by the time they got to me, they were pretty fatigued. Luke Durbridge was among the 15 riders who came back. He was one of the leaders for our team that day. He was looking very strong.
Tom [Boonen] was doing a lot of work, the group was too big and he wanted to thin it out. Onto Orchies, he really tried to make it hard again, he didn’t have so many teammates and I think he wanted to get rid of as many people as possible, and at the end of Orchies, Luke punctured. If he was in front of me, maybe I would have given my wheel but he was already behind and stopped before I could react. And then I was: ‘Oh well, I’m by myself now.’”

KM 257.5. BRING IT HOME : “Coming into the Velodrome, I probably had the smallest palmares”
“On Mons-en-Pévèle, there was a big acceleration, I was caught behind a rider, maybe it was [Marcel] Sieberg… And I could see Sep [Vanmarcke] or Ian Stannard going really fast. I hesitated, I was thinking: ‘I’ve been in the break, maybe I just stay there…’ But I understood I had to go. Still, I didn’t believe I could win. Then on the Carrefour de l’Arbre, I was knocked off the wheel, I managed to come across and that’s when I started believing. Coming into the Velodrome with Sep Vanmarcke, Ian Stannard, Tom Boonen and Edvald Boasson Hagen, I probably had the smallest palmares. But I wasn’t thinking like that, I was just thinking of racing, having moves, covering attacks, trying to get to the finish line.
Then, as soon as I crossed the line, I came back to reality and tried to understand what had happened. In other years, I was in great shape and something always happened. And I always put pressure on myself to have a good race in Roubaix. I knew that when Tom and Fabian accelerated on the cobbles, they were impossible to follow – for me and for everyone else! So I looked for other ways. It’s just a race I fell in love with. And I won it in the year when I had the least chance of doing well.“

Mathew Hayman :
• Born on 20th April 1978 in Camperdown (Australia)
• Sports director for Team Jayco AlUla
• Holds the record for most participations in Paris-Roubaix – 17 :
Winner in 2016 / 8th in 2012 / 10th in 2011

Ronde van Vlaanderen 2024

Eintagsrennen, Ergebnisse, Frauenradsport, Frühjahrskassiker, Strassenrennen, Weltcup und Klassiker, , , , , , , , , , ,

Männer 271km:


3er Nils Politt (Plomi Foto)

1 VAN DER POEL Mathieu NED Alpecin-Deceuninck 06:05:17
2 MOZZATO Luca ITA ARKEA-B&B HOTELS 01:02
3 POLITT Nils GER UAE Team Emirates 01:02
4 BJERG Mikkel DEN UAE Team Emirates 01:02
5 MORGADO António POR UAE Team Emirates 01:02
6 SHEFFIELD Magnus USA INEOS Grenadiers 01:02
7 NAESEN Oliver BEL Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale 01:02
8 TEUNS Dylan BEL Israel-Premier Tech 01:02
9 BETTIOL Alberto ITA EF Education-EasyPost 01:02
10 SKUJINS Toms LAT Lidl-Trek 01:02
11 MATTHEWS Michael AUS Team Jayco-AlUla 01:02
12 WELLENS Tim BEL UAE Team Emirates 01:16
13 SHEEHAN Riley USA Israel-Premier Tech 02:02
14 MALECKI Kamil POL Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team 02:02
15 BENOOT Tiesj BEL Team Visma | Lease a Bike 02:02
16 MADOUAS Valentin FRA Groupama-FDJ 02:02
17 TARLING Joshua GBR INEOS Grenadiers 02:02
18 LAMPAERT Yves BEL Soudal Quick-Step 02:02
19 TRENTIN Matteo ITA Tudor Pro Cycling Team 02:02
20 WALSCHEID Max GER Team Jayco-AlUla 02:41
21 REX Laurenz BEL Intermarché-Wanty 02:41
22 PEDERSEN Mads DEN Lidl-Trek 02:41
23 VERMEERSCH Gianni BEL Alpecin-Deceuninck 02:41
24 TILLER Rasmus NOR Uno-X Mobility 02:41
25 TEUNISSEN Mike NED Intermarché-Wanty 02:41
26 GARCÍA CORTINA Iván ESP Movistar Team 02:41
27 CAMPENAERTS Victor BEL Lotto Dstny 02:41
28 ALBANESE Vincenzo ITA ARKEA-B&B HOTELS 02:41
29 DOULL Owain GBR EF Education-EasyPost 03:20
30 VAN DIJKE Tim NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 03:20
31 JORGENSON Matteo USA Team Visma | Lease a Bike 03:38
32 ABRAHAMSEN Jonas NOR Uno-X Mobility 04:29
33 HALLER Marco AUT BORA-hansgrohe 04:29
34 STEIMLE Jannik GER Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team 04:29
35 RUTSCH Jonas GER EF Education-EasyPost 04:29
36 BISSEGGER Stefan SUI EF Education-EasyPost 04:29
37 DEGENKOLB John GER Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 04:29
38 TURNER Ben GBR INEOS Grenadiers 04:29
39 PITHIE Laurence NZL Groupama-FDJ 04:29
40 HAGENES Per Strand NOR Team Visma | Lease a Bike 04:29
41 KÜNG Stefan SUI Groupama-FDJ 04:29


2er Luca Mozzato (Plomi Foto)

Frauen 163km

1 LONGO BORGHINI Elisa ITA Lidl-Trek 04:16:04
2 NIEWIADOMA Katarzyna POL CANYON//SRAM Racing 00:00
3 VAN ANROOIJ Shirin NED Lidl-Trek 00:00
4 VOS Marianne NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 00:09
5 KOPECKY Lotte BEL Team SD Worx-Protime 00:09
6 PIETERSE Puck NED Fenix-Deceuninck 00:09
7 PERSICO Silvia ITA UAE Team ADQ 00:09
8 VOLLERING Demi NED Team SD Worx-Protime 00:15
9 PATERNOSTER Letizia ITA Liv AlUla Jayco 01:40
10 SWINKELS Karlijn NED UAE Team ADQ 01:40
11 WIEBES Lorena NED Team SD Worx-Protime 01:46
12 SIERRA Arlenis CUB Movistar Team 01:46
13 GEORGI Pfeiffer GBR Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 01:46
14 BERTEAU Victoire FRA Cofidis Women Team 01:46
15 DE JONG Thalita NED Lotto Dstny Ladies 01:46
16 ADEGEEST Loes NED FDJ-SUEZ 01:46
17 VAN EMPEL Fem NED Team Visma | Lease a Bike 01:46
18 PALADIN Soraya ITA CANYON//SRAM Racing 01:46
19 BERTON Nina LUX Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling 01:46
20 NORSGAARD Emma DEN Movistar Team 01:46

ESCAPE FROM HELL-2011 : JOHAN VANSUMMEREN (III/V)

Eintagsrennen, Frühjahrskassiker, History, Strassenrennen, Weltcup und Klassiker, , , ,

2011: Johan Vansummeren (III/V)

In the end, it’s not always the strongest who wins. Certainly not in cycling, and most definitely not in Paris-Roubaix. On the roads of the Hell of the North, the „strongest“ can just as easily win in the legendary velodrome as get bogged down in the Trouée d’Arenberg. Year after year, the cobblestone crushers crash in the Mons-en-Pévèle sector or collapse in the Carrefour de l’Arbre – and one cannot underestimate the traps of the asphalt either. On these unique roads, an aspirant for glory needs to be strong, but also brave and lucky. Paris-Roubaix smiles on the bold, even those who have been out there the longest. In a race where chaos is always the order of the day, early attackers create unsuspected openings. Conquerors of the Hell of the North, they tell us about their heavenly day on the cobbles.

Johan Vansummeren : „At Roubaix, I knew I had a chance“
4 + 3 + 2 = 9. From 2005 to 2013, nine editions of Paris-Roubaix were dominated by three major forces. There was Tom Boonen, Flanders hero, winner of the Hell of the North on four occasions, like Roger De Vlaeminck in the 1970s. Swiss icon Fabian Cancellara also made his way into the Roubaix legend with three triumphs. The other two editions contested during their reign crowned long-distance attackers specialising in the cobbles, who eventually found an opening to upset the pre-established (but rarely respected) scenarios of Paris-Roubaix.
In 2007, Stuart O’Grady achieved his conquest by taking part in the early breakaway before he surged in the final. In 2011, Johan Vansummeren was “at the back of the pack“ when the breakaway set off. The Trouée d’Arenberg was his winning launchpad, almost 100 kilometres away from the André-Pétrieux velodrome. At the same time, Boonen was lamenting a puncture. As for Fabian Cancellara, he remained behind, alongside the other main favourites, led by world champion Thor Hushovd, Vansummeren’s teammate in the ranks of Garmin-Cervélo.
Winner in Roubaix a year earlier (ahead of Hushovd, 2nd), Cancellara eventually unleashed his power. The gap to the front of the race had shrunk to around twenty seconds with 30 kilometres to go. But Vansummeren didn’t wait for anyone en route to the greatest success of his career. The Belgian suffered right to the end, with a puncture just outside of the Vélodrome. Still, he fulfilled the prophecy of his boss Jonathan Vaughters, who was convinced that Vansummeren, even more than Hushovd, held the key to breaking the Boonen-Cancellara lock.

KM 0. TOO EARLY TO MOVE : „I wasn’t going to jostle and lose energy“
„At the start, I was free – I didn’t have to do anything for the team leaders. Thor Hushovd had two riders working for him, [Roger] Hammond and [Andreas] Klier, and I could do my own thing. Up until the first sector in Troisvilles, I stayed at the back of the pack. You have to make a choice: either you try to get into the breakaway, or you try to preserve your legs as much as possible. That’s also a risk. If there’s a lot of wind, you can’t afford to lag behind. But that day, I told myself that I wasn’t going to jostle and lose energy. My idea was not to worry about the race for the first 100 kilometres. It was only in the last ten kilometres before Troisvilles that I started to work my way up to the front of the peloton.”

KM 98. SURVIVING THE FIRST COBBLES : „There are crashes, the peloton splits“
„The first cobbles in Paris-Roubaix are always dangerous. I was talking about it again last week with a friend: ‘We never talk about the first sectors, it’s not five stars… But there’s always tension.’ You have two hundred riders and everyone wants to be in the top ten. There are crashes, the peloton splits… OK, it comes back, but it takes energy. You have to fight beforehand and if you enter the cobbles in fifth or sixth position, you can even allow yourself to drop back a little. It’s all about being in the safety zone and staying well placed to avoid any splits.”

KM 172. ARENBERG, THE LAUNCH PAD : „Lotto pulled and pulled and pulled“
„At Arenberg, there isn’t really a safe zone any more. Even in second place, if the guy in front of you crashes, there’s no room. And if you have a mechanical… I was able to go through without having to push too hard. And as soon as we came out of the cobbles, [Jurgen] Roelandts attacked. I was on his wheel and off we went. We quickly caught up with the breakaway and then Lotto had three riders [Roelandts, André Greipel and David Boucher]. It was magnificent. They didn’t ask for anything, they just pulled and pulled and pulled… And I was around tenth place [he whistles]. They carried me for nearly 70 kilometres, until we battled it out in the finale with [Lars] Bak, [Maarten] Tjallingi… At no point did I think about the gap or the chasing riders. Anyway, the situation changes a lot. And as soon as there are only three or four of us in front, it’s a mano a mano.”

KM 242. THE RIGHT TURN ON THE CARREFOUR : „Tjallingi was five metres away“
„I felt really good. And I know the Carrefour de l’Arbre quite well, the corners, the first left-right… And after about a kilometre, there’s a left-hand bend… And that’s where I went really fast. Tjallingi was five metres from my wheel. He never came back. I had good legs, a clear head and my experience of Paris-Roubaix, the recons… Even today, you leave me in Troisvilles and I’ll take you to Roubaix, with my eyes closed! But there, I wasn’t at ease. In the last sector before Roubaix, my wheel hit a cobblestone. I thought to myself: ‘ouch…‘ And in the last three kilometres, my rim was touching the road. It was a bit of a panic, I was really stressed. On the videos, you can see that I entered the velodrome with a soft tubular. But it worked out.”

KM 256.5. ELATION IN ROUBAIX AND LOMMEL : „I bought a few tons of beer“
„It was total madness. I was so proud, so happy. When I signed my contract with Garmin, I told Vaughters: ‘I know I can’t win many races… But Roubaix, I can do it.’ Then, just because you can doesn’t mean you’re going to win! But at Roubaix, I knew I had a chance. The team organised dinner that evening, then we left around midnight. And when I arrived in my town [Lommel], there must have been 2,000 people in the streets. The police were there, the roads were blocked, there was the mayor, the TV cameras… I bought a few tons of beer, stayed for an hour, an hour and a half, and then went home. I was dead.“

Johan Vansummeren :
Born on 4th February 1981 in Lommel (Belgium)
9 participations in the Tour de France
9 participations in Paris-Roubaix :
• Winner in 2011 / 5th in 2009 / 8th in 2008 / 9th in 2012
• Winner of Tour de Pologne 2007 (stage 7 and general classification)
• Winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Espoirs in 2003

ESCAPE FROM HELL – 2007 : STUART O’GRADY (II/V)

Eintagsrennen, Frühjahrskassiker, History, Strassenrennen, Weltcup und Klassiker, , , ,

2007 : Stuart O’Grady (II/V)
In the end, it’s not always the strongest who wins. Certainly not in cycling, and most definitely not in Paris-Roubaix. On the roads of the Hell of the North, the „strongest“ can just as easily win in the legendary velodrome as get bogged down in the Trouée d’Arenberg. Year after year, the cobblestone crushers crash in the Mons-en-Pévèle sector or collapse in the Carrefour de l’Arbre – and one cannot underestimate the traps of the asphalt either. On these unique roads, an aspirant for glory needs to be strong, but also brave and lucky. Paris-Roubaix smiles on the bold, even those who have been out there the longest. In a race where chaos is always the order of the day, early attackers create unsuspected openings. Conquerors of the Hell of the North, they tell us about their heavenly day on the cobbles.

O’Grady: “It was like having an out-of-body experience“
Stuart O’Grady knew everything about how to power victory in a velodrome when he lined up at the start of Paris-Roubaix 2007, his “finest road result”. His last victory before he tamed the French Monument actually came in the Athens Olympic Velodrome, during the 2004 Games, where he won the Madison. In his 33rd Spring, the Australian veteran also had a wealth of experience to share in the Classics and he approached with high confidence his 9th participation in the Hell of the North, a week after finishing 10th in the Ronde van Vlaanderen.
These stripes didn’t make O’Grady a favourite to raise the famous winner’s cobble in the Vélodrome of Roubaix. In these years, all eyes turned to Fabian Cancellara – especially O’Grady’s, who was a teammate of the Swiss icon – and Tom Boonen, the two of them claiming seven victories in the nine editions raced between 2005 and 2013. It appeared the only way to escape their dominance was to anticipate, as O’Grady showed and Johan Vansummeren confirmed, in 2011.
On his special day, „Stuey“ the Aussie was greeted by exceptionally high temperatures in the North of France. He made the early breakaway to launch a trailblazing conquest. A puncture and a crash got in his way, the bigger guns got back to him… But O’Grady surged again on the Carrefour de l’Arbre. „Today, I was going to win or die trying“, he said as he became the first rider from Down Under to conquer Roubaix and its iconic Vélodrome.

Km 0. Let them go : “Everybody goes full gas in the first 15 kilometres”
“Fabian [Cancellara] was the protected rider, especially as the defending champion. I was more of a plan B, along with Lars Michaelsen and Matti Breschel. My objective was to get in the breakaway with a couple of teammates, to be ahead of the race, be ready to help Fabian deep in the finale. Getting in the break is probably one of the most difficult things to achieve. Every directeur sportif tells his riders he wants one or two of them in the breakaway. It’s very fast, it’s very hard. You need a lot of experience. Everybody goes full gas in the first 15 kilometres, which isn’t the best way to go about it. It’s more about picking your opportunities from that 16, 17km mark, when the road starts taking a few little small climbs, which makes a good launchpad to create a breakaway.”

Km 19. Feel the move : “Come on, it’s a good opportunity!”
“When the breakaway initially went, it had Luke Roberts and Matti Breschel in it. I thought it was a good group but I also thought I really need to be in it as well. I used my experience to jump across at a favourable moment and we were three riders. It was a real defining moment. It was very important for us to have multiple riders in the breakaway. Obviously, we didn’t realise it would be 30 riders, which kind of worked in our favour. I remember yelling at the riders: ‘Come on, it’s a good opportunity, the further we get ahead the better’. And I managed to get the breakaway very.

Km 163. Survive Arenberg : “I thought my race was finished”
“We were hoping to get to Arenberg and in the end, the breakaway went much further… But it didn’t work out like that for me. I was always entering the sectors first or second wheel, to chose my line, try to avoid stupid crashes or incidents. I was feeling really good. Everything was coming to plan. But I punctured in Arenberg. I was devastated, I thought my race was finished. But that’s where my experience from the previous Paris-Roubaix helped me. The younger Stuart would have tried to time trial back to that group and probably explode a few sections later. The more experienced Stuart went: ‘You know what, let’s just get to the end of the section, let’s get a musette…’ It was a very hot and dusty day, which made it really difficult to eat and drink. That puncture was probably a blessing in disguise.”

Km 215. Get Cancellara’s approval : “If you can, just go”
“Once I got caught, I spoke with Fabian. We shared room the night before and we were very close friends. I was told to attack on the next section… And I crashed on a corner, which was unusual. I was usually pretty good on the cobbles but I think with the pressure, having to attack for Fabian, I had a little lapse in concentration and I crashed. I was really mad at myself. I thought I had let Fabian down. With that anger, I rode back to the peloton. And that’s when Fabian said: ‘‘I’m not on a good day. You obviously are. If you can, just go.’”

Km 234. Go go go : “What have I done?”
“I followed Steffen Wesemann and Roger Hammond, who had just attacked. They rode me to the front of the race. At that moment, something inside my head just said: ‘Go’. I didn’t know how many kilometres were left to go, I didn’t know anything… I just saw the moment that everyone was really tired and they all kind of sat up. And at that moment, my head just said ‘attack, just go’. I saw an opportunity and then I saw the sign that said 25 kilometres to go… Holy shit, what have I done? But I felt really good on the Carrefour. My goal was to get a one-minute advantage. Then, the riders behind would start looking at each other and racing for the places of second and third.”

Km 259.5. Feel the legend : “Is this really happening?”
“It was like having an out-of-body experience. You’re racing, you’re off the front in Paris-Roubaix, and you’re kind of asking: ‘Is this really happening?’ Your legs are on the verge of cramping. Your arms are absolutely wrecked. Your neck, everything is hurting. But I guess that desire, that will to win, is just screaming at you: ‘Just keep going there, this is your day!’ It doesn’t happen very often in your career, at least it didn’t happen very often in my career! So I pushed as hard as I could push and it worked. The winner’s cobble is the only trophy I have on display at my home, in Australia. It’s in the entrance and I still touch it most days. It brings back a lot of incredible memories.”

Stuart O’Grady :
• Born on 6 August 1973 in Adelaide (Australia)
• Director of the Santos Tour Down Under

17 participations in the Tour de France :
• 2 stage wins (1998, 2004) / 9 Yellow jerseys (1998, 2001)
14 participations in Paris-Roubaix :
• Winner in 2007 / 5th in 2008
• Track Olympic Champion in 2004
• 3rd of Milano-Sanremo 2004
• 3rd of the Ronde van Vlaanderen 2003
• 3rd of Paris-Tours 2003 and 2006