Sunday 12 April 2015 at 19h11

John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Alpecin) probably dreamed as much of it as Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky). While the British rider would have hoped to end his professional cycling career on a victory at Paris-Roubaix, the Germand rider kept in mind the bad taste of the second place last year. As one of the riders in a small groupe of 7 riders at the entrance of the Vélodrome in Roubaix, John Degenkolb showed his sprinters qualities and thus managed to cross the finish line first when the breakaway crossed it for the second time on the track!

The summary of Paris-Roubaix 2015

After several unsuccessful breakaway attempts,, nine riders formed today's breakaway after an attack at kilometer 34 under the sun which was shining on the roads of Paris-Roubaix 2015 today!

In this group we found Gregory Rast (Trek Factory Racing), Adam Blythe (Orica-GreenEDGE), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Sean de Bie (Lotto-Soudal), Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Tim Declercq (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Ralf Matzka (Bora-Argon 18) and the peloton finally gave them their go, even though the breakaway had some difficulties to increase its gap initially. Before they got on the first cobble stones section their gap however reached its maximum, at a bit under 10 minutes (yes, no less than that!).

In the Trouée d'Arenberg, the breakaway loses its first element, Sean de Bie, before Saramotins decides to attack in this section which is part of the most difficult ones of Paris-Roubaix but the other riders of the breakaway manage to get back on him when they leave this section and there are thus again 8 riders in front.

When a part of the peloton is delayed by a train, the UCI commissaires decide to slow down the other part which managed to cross before the train passed in order to get the bunch back together after the train crossing.
Thanks to an attack by the Etixx-QuickStep team, a group of favorites was formed at the head of the peloton in the cobble stones section of Tilloy with Niki Terpstra and Zdenek Stybar and in the group we mainly found Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Alpecin) and Lars Boom (Astana) but other favourites like Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) came back on them while the breakaway lost Pierre-Luc Périchon after a flat tire at about sixty kilometers from the finish.

At about 25 kilometers from the finish, the group of favourites comes back on the breakaway and quickly, several attacks follow but they all remain unsuccessful. Until the one by Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) at 12 kilometers from the finish, initially only followed by Yves Lampaert (Etixx-QuickStep). John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Alpecin) starts the chase behind them and joins them at 6 kilometers from the finish. Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep), Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEDGE), Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) and Lars Boom (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) form the next chasing group and little by little they also join the breakaway in the last few kilometers. This group of 7 is the first to arrive at the Roubaix vélodrome and when John Degenkolb launches his sprint far from the second crossing of the finish line, none of the other riders manage to follow the German rider who thus wins Paris-Roubaix 2015, after a second place behind Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) last year!

The classification of Paris-Roubaix 2015

Here's the top 10 of Paris-Roubaix 2015:

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Alpecin) - 5h49'51"
2/ Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep)
3/ Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team)
4/ Lars Boom (Astana Pro Team)
5/ Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling)
6/ Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEDGE)
7/ Yves Lampaert (Etixx-QuickStep) - +0'07"
8/ Luke Rowe (Team Sky) - +0'28"
9/ Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Soudal) - +0'29"
10/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) - +0'31"

The photos of Paris-Roubaix 2015

The first photos at the start of Paris-Roubaix 2015 have been published early this afternoon already and you also found the photo of the podium of Paris-Roubaix 2015 in the afternoon. Since late night you can now find a complete photo selection of the race:

>> The photos of Paris-Roubaix 2015

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Roubaix | Classics

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