A Belgian fairy tale was harshly disrupted on Sunday afternoon at the vélodrome in Roubaix. Six months after sustaining a serious head injury in the second stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour, Tom Boonen reached out to a record-breaking fifth victory in Paris-Roubaix, but he was beaten to the line. The five-man sprint was won by Mathew Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge), who even apologized during his post-race interview for taking away the Belgian's chance to make history.
Belgian Sporza commentators were ecstatic during the final kilometres of a – once again – spectacular Paris-Roubaix, clearly feeling that the only logical end to this fairy tale was a win for Boonen. The volume in the studio and in the vélodrome rose to a crescendo but then abruptly went silent as Hayman raised his hands in victory.
For once, Etixx-QuickStep manager Patrick Lefevere had to search for words. In fact, Boonen seemed to be the only man who was able to deal with second place.
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“I never doubted myself. I don’t need to do that,” Boonen said. Despite his lack of results or strong performances at the previous Spring Classics he always kept believing in Paris-Roubaix. Boonen pointed out though his crash in Abu Dhabi happened in 2015 he was due to be running out of time for the 2016 Spring Classics.
“This morning I received a text message from the doctor who treated me in Abu Dhabi after my crash telling me today was the day I could look at my bike again. So I’m a little bit ahead of schedule. Today I finish as runner-up in Paris-Roubaix and had the opportunity to win it. In Flanders we say ‘you have to call a cat a cat’, I can’t be unsatisfied.
“If you try to win the race it’s possible you lose it. We went all in, we did everything we needed to do and maybe being second today won’t be so bad for the future.
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