Amidst a greenish mask, Zdenek Stybar’s teeth erupt with astonishing whiteness. The Czech man smiles because he doesn’t really have the strength to cry, to collapse or just to run in the shower anymore. Even for a former cyclo-cross world champion, this 2021 Paris-Roubaix, transformed into a mud bath, was a test. The kind that puts the runner alone in front of himself and his pain.
“At the beginning, I liked it, sighs the Deceuninck Quick-Step rider. It was new, spectacular, I felt good. But in the last 50 kilometers it was just pain. I felt my strength leaving me ”, confesses the 26th on arrival at the Roubaix velodrome.
Because the Gods of the weather are sometimes teasing, a ray of sunshine accompanies the confidences of the first “survivors” of a Northern Hell run by a terrible time. The winner, Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Victorious), has already had the opportunity to give a towel to be more presentable.
COLBRELLI WHO STUCKS, COLBRELLI WHO WINS, COLBRELLI WHO WINS! The European champion is ahead of Van der Poel and Ver… https://t.co/6NzpFg1ONn
The cold and the rain, “it’s first in the head”
Since the Tour de France, the 31-year-old Italian has been walking on water. Which is still very practical for passing cobbled sectors that are sometimes drowned. “It was my first participation and I didn’t even know if I was going to see the Vélodrome”, ahead, a modest bit false, the recent European champion who we knew as a sprinter in his early days and who now knows how to climb and therefore, also, swallow the cobbles.
Like what, we sometimes discover unknown talents in the past thirty. Colbrelli admits, however, that he almost let himself be surprised by the astonishing Florian Vermeersch, survivor of the morning break. With the audacity of his 22 years, the Belgian started the sprint, winning a Mathieu van der Poel stewed on this day when the Dutchman forgot to count his pedal strokes.
Astonishing boy that this Vermeersch. A week earlier, the Lotto-Soudal rider was competing for the world championships… hopes. And here he is, serious as a Pope, declaring himself ” a little disappointed “ by this second place and tell you that the cold and the rain “It is first in the head”.
In the body too. Wet or dry, there are no secrets to success at Paris-Roubaix: “You have to have it in your guts”, in the words of a former double winner, Marc Madiot. On arrival, 94 of them had the guts and the courage to reach the Vélodrome.
While his leader, Mathieu Van der Poel very quickly escaped the swarm of journalists and even skipped the press conference, disappointed by his third place, the Swiss Silvan Dillier swears he saw only winners today : “We would have all deserved a medal”,
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