Peter Sagan was crowned as king of Paris-Roubaix as incredible solo attack and superhuman efforts from his BORA – hansgrohe team led to a legendary win.
Paris – Roubaix has eluded the UCI World Champion so many times, but today Peter Sagan not only won Paris-Roubaix for the first time in his career, he also won it in style. After the BORA-hansgrohe riders executed their plan perfectly, riding hard from the start and sacrificing themselves for their team leader, the Slovak rider took over, going on an audacious breakaway move with 54km remaining that left his rivals unable to react. Teaming up with the remnants of the day’s escape, Peter extended the time gap, and as the final kilometres came into view and the Roubaix velodrome loomed large on the horizon, there was no doubting who was going to take the win. Quick to thank his teammates from the finish line for their part in his victory, Peter took away a cobblestone for his victory, his second Monument of his career and was crowned the first winner of Paris-Roubaix in the Rainbow Jersey in nearly forty years.
Victory was Sagan’s only goal for today. To tire out the other teams, the aim was to ride hard from the start, with Andreas Schillinger and Rüdi Selliger driving the pace from the outset, Juraj Sagan and Maciej Bodnar taking over for the mid-section and Marcus Burghardt and Daniel Oss protecting Peter when the race really came to life. The rest would be down to Peter, and the whole peloton knew that he would have the legs and the tactical brain to know when to make his winning move.
The Race:
There was some distance from the start of the day to the first cobblestone section, and so riders would try to make an impact as early as possible, but in spite of some attempts to break away, it wasn’t until 35km had passed that an attempt stuck, with a small group of nine riders gaining a small advantage on the peloton. There were no contenders in this group, and so they posed little threat to the main group, and so were allowed on their way, leading by five minutes before the peloton was spurred on to reduce the gap.
Entering the Trouée d’Arenberg, Sagan was kept safe by teammate Marcus Burghardt, with Daniel Oss riding to shut down the attacks that attempted to close the ever-decreasing gap to the breakaway, which was slowly shedding members as the harder cobblestone sectors came.
The whole of the BORA-hansgrohe team showed strength in controlling the pace and responding to attacks, destroying themselves to keep Peter in contention. With less than thirty seconds between the chasers and the final three members of the break, at 54km Peter attacked on his own.
The peloton didn’t know how to react, and the Slovak rider was left to disappear on up the road, first bridging to the breakaway before working with the escape to build the advantage back up, exceeding a minute and hitting 1’30” at its peak. One by one the breakaway riders dropped off until it was just two, and while the chasers managed to reduce the time gap, the number of kilometres remaining was dropping at a faster rate. Entering the famous Roubaix Velodrome, it was just Peter and Swiss Champion Silvan Dillier left. Riding away to take the win in a two-man sprint, the race was won by a rider in the Rainbow Stripes of UCI World Champion for the first time since Bernard Hinault in 1981.
From the Finish Line:
“It’s amazing to win Paris-Roubaix! I’m so tired after this race but I have to say, this year I wasn’t involved in any crashes, I wasn’t feeling tired at the start and just tried to save energy,” said Sagan. “After I went in the attack I just kept going until the finish. I feel so much better than I have done in all the years I’ve ridden Paris-Roubaix – I was so much more tired then than I am today. Thank you to all my teammates, because they did such a great job – Daniel Oss, Marcus Burghardt and Maciej Bodnar, my brother Juraj and to Andreas Schillinger and Rüdi Selliger at the start, who kept the group all together. In the end, I made the winning move with around 50km to go and I’m very happy to have come in first. It’s an amazing feeling. I always try to do my best and to get the best results.”
“We had a clear plan at the Paris-Roubaix today and it was flawlessly executed, added BORA-hansgrohe Team Manager Ralph Denk. “I was in the car with Willi Bruckbauer, the owner of our principal naming sponsor BORA, and I can tell you the car was on fire!!! This is the first Monument our team wins!!! Our strategy was to launch an early attack by saving energy up to that point and play one card. I saw Peter’s attack on TV and very quickly he opened a big gap. I had a good feeling about it and as we saw, it was impossible for the others to reach him. It’s always nice to win such a big race from the break rather than a bunch sprint. The Paris-Roubaix was missing from his palmares and it was a very important win for him and the team as a whole. We had a few mixed results at the Flemish Classics – we won Gent-Wevelgem but lost at Flanders and didn’t do so well in the other races. I think that with today’s great victory we have a very good spring season.”
Dillier Ultimately Satisfied:
“It’s hard to describe how I feel. There is a bit of disappointment, but above all a great satisfaction. This morning, I was not thinking of the podium … but I had to find the right recipe along the way. I finished with Peter Sagan, currently the best rider in the world, and I cannot be sad about taking second place. When I can get into a breakaway early on, I know that I’ll get stronger and stronger throughout the day.
I proved it by winning the Route Adélie ten days ago. When we found ourselves in the front, we wanted to go as far as possible. Our group collaborated well. Then Sagan joined us. On the one hand, it was good because he has a big engine, but we knew it would be hard to beat him in a sprint. In the end, when it was just me and him, I thought the most important thing would be not to get caught, and I told him that we should work together, which is what we did. In the sprint, I tried to play on the strength of my track experience, but he was just too strong for me.
This second place does show that I am able to transcend myself in a race.”
Terpstra Takes 3rd Paris-Roubaix Podium:
Niki Terpstra took his third podium in eleven Paris-Roubaix participations, after riding away from a strong chasing group inside the closing kilometers of the race and arriving on the famed André-Pétrieux Velodrome less than a minute behind Sagan and Dillier.
Niki Terpstra was the one doing most of the work in the chasing group, attacking on the five-star sector of Mons-en-Pévèle and forcing an important selection. Only a handful of riders could follow the Ronde van Vlaanderen champion, who put in two more searing accelerations, on Carrefour de l’Arbre and then with 1500 meters left, dispatching all his companions and entering alone on the Roubaix velodrome, where he notched up his sixth podium finish in a Monument.
The 33-year-old, whose result meant a Quick-Step Floors rider concluded Paris-Roubaix in the top-3 for a seventh consecutive season, didn’t have any regrets at the end of the 257km-long “Queen of the Classics”.
“I am happy, but not as happy as last week. Still, a podium in Roubaix is always special and today it came after a race in which I felt really good. We attacked, did an aggressive race, but weren’t in the first row when Sagan attacked, so we couldn’t close that gap. Anyway, he was the strongest rider today, so congrats to him”, said Niki, before looking back on the squad’s memorable campaign. “Our spring has been truly amazing, we’ve won nine-day races and currently have a total of 25 victories, so I think we can be proud of this remarkable string of achievements.”
Terpstra’s placing helped Quick-Step Floors further extend its advantage at the top of the World Tour team standings. They now sit almost 2000 points clear of the next squad.
2018 Paris – Roubaix Brief Results:
- SAGAN Peter (BORA – hansgrohe) at 5:54:06
- DILLIER Silvan (AG2R La Mondiale) s.t.
- TERPSTRA Niki (Quick-Step Floors) at 0:57
- VAN AVERMAET Greg (BMC Racing Team) at 1:34
- STUYVEN Jasper (Trek – Segafredo) s.t.
- VANMARCKE Sep (Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale) s.t.
- POLITT Nils (Team Katusha – Alpecin) at 2:31
- PHINNEY Taylor (Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale) s.t.
- STYBAR Zdenek (Quick-Step Floors) s.t.
- DEBUSSCHERE Jens (Lotto Soudal) s.t.
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