Greg Van Avermaet's transition from nearly man to world class has been completed with his first Monument victory at Paris-Roubaix. A changed rider in just a few short seasons, Van Avermaet has gone from hoping for a solid result to entering the Roubaix velodrome with a cement-hardened belief that he would be first across the line.
For a time it seemed as though Van Avermaet was destined, like Raymond Poulidor at the Tour de France, to become synonymous with missing out on the wins he coveted the most. That has all changed, and at times the BMC man has appeared unstoppable this spring, with a string of top results culminating in his first Monument victory ahead of Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step) and Sebastian Langeveld (Cannondale-Drapac).
"I think that I did everything well and I still had the power to beat Stybar. I'm really happy. For me, the Olympics will always be my biggest victory, but it is good to also have a Monument, otherwise, you keep asking when I'm going to win a Monument," Van Avermaet told the press after his victory. "I was really confident about my sprint because several times I've done a sprint from a small group and at the end of a race I was always one of the fastest guys. I came into the track with the thought that I'm going to win this race. I think that's always a good start.
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"Before I would come to Roubaix on the track and try to do a good result, but now I come to the velodrome and think, now I'm going to win. This small change of mindset makes a difference to the end result."
Confidence aside, Van Avermaet must have thought that it was all about to come down around him again at Paris-Roubaix. A week after losing out on an opportunity to contest victory at the Tour of Flanders when he got caught up in a crash with Peter Sagan, lady luck appeared to be against him again when a near crash and then a mechanical problem saw him lose 40 seconds ahead of the Trouée de Arenberg.
A panicked Van Avermaet strode down the cobbles towards his team car, screaming into his team radio while dragging the now useless bike along with him.
Flanders
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