During the final minutes of Paris-Roubaix the atmosphere in the vélodrome was ready to reach its climax when five riders entered the track. Among them was quadruple winner Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep), ready to get a record-breaking fifth win. Seeing Mathew Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge) take the win in the sprint, beating Boonen on the line was quite the anti-climax. In the Etixx camp obviously there were only disappointed faces. Team manager Patrick Lefevere was there inside the track to await his rider together with personal assistant Stephanie Clerckx. For once, Lefevere was speechless, briefly.
In a first reaction Patrick Lefevere said that Boonen was on his level. "He wasn't the weakest. Boonen was the strongest. He was confident. He told me: ‘If I win I want to do it in the sprint.' Sadly enough somebody was stronger than him," Lefevre said.
When asked by a journalist whether he was disappointed Lefevere got mad. "Do you have more stupid questions like that," Lefevere fumed.
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Little later he continued. "I'm very sad for him especially. He's the athlete. He deserved to win his fifth. He did everything for it. Starting with a [lag] on the other competitors. He did have a Winter. He needed every day to come back to this level. He was here. We were aiming for a fifth win. It was win or defeat. Sadly enough for Tom it was defeat," Lefevere said. According to Lefevere he was losing the race before the finish. "He went all in when closing the gap on Hayman. That also cost Boasson Hagen and Vanmarcke the victory. It was already happening on Hem [pavé sector 2]. At five kilometres to go they were all dead. They all wanted to attack but nobody had the juice in their legs to get away. Yesterday he told me that he didn't fear anybody in the sprint. I think that today the most fresh rider won the race."
Hayman was somewhat fresh despite the effort of the Etixx-riders to make the race as hard as possible. The riders from Lefevere featured in most breakaway attempts. Matteo Trentin and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck featured in a group of 25 riders that got away after 25 kilometres. Later they missed out when a group of 16 riders got away after less than 70 kilometres of racing in what turned out to be the decisive breakaway. The group also included eventual winner Mathew Hayman. Ten kilometres later Etixx was working in front of the peloton to get the group back, creating echelons. Once on the cobbles the Sky team took over the command but at sector 20 they were back in charge. First Van Keirsbulck and then an impressive Tony Martin rode the peloton to pieces, shortly after a crash that split up the peloton. During the race Lefevere sent out a message on Twitter, speaking out against the LottoNL-Jumbo team who had six riders in the group.
We see again what modern cycling means. 20 riders. 3 riders of us pulling. @LottoJumbo_road 6 riders, 1 is puling. Guts @Etixx_QuickStep
— Patrick Lefevere (@PatLefevere) April 10, 2016
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