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Sir Bradley Wiggins keen for another tilt as Terpstra wins Paris-Roubaix Bradley Wiggins keen for another tilt as Terpstra wins Paris-Roubaix
(about 2 hours later)
Shortly after crossing the line on the Roubaix velodrome, Bradley Wiggins lay on the grass, his face reflecting his efforts on the bone-crushing cobbles of the Hell of the North – and he wished he could do it all over again next weekend. Bradley Wiggins has always been particularly proud of the breadth of his cycling register, taking in as it does road, time trials and track events. After finishing the sport's most demanding one-day race, the Paris-Roubaix Hell of the North, in ninth place and on the heels of the winner Niki Terpstra after a six-hour stint through dust clouds and past vast dunghills on the back lanes of northern France, he can now add another category to the long list: Classics contender.
Wiggins, the first rider since Greg Lemond in 1992 to start the Queen of the Classics as a former Tour de France winner, took an impressive ninth place after 257 kilometres, 51.1 of them on cobbled sections. He was one of the first of a peloton of 199 starters to emerge from the cloud of dust, a dozen bikes travelling at neck-breaking speed on the feared Carrefour de l'Arbre. For a cyclist who once specialised in the four-minute pursuit, added the dizzying Madison and then moved on to win the Tour de France, hanging tough with the best one-day specialists such as Tom Boonen, four times a winner in Roubaix, and Fabian Cancellara – a dominant victor of the Tour of Flanders the previous weekend – is a feat that cannot be underestimated, and it left Wiggins delighted, even if he was disappointed not to have won.
"You really have to commit going into these sectors and close your eyes," Wiggins told reporters. "There's a tinge of disappointment. I really had legs, even in the final, I felt strong," Wiggins said. "I was pinching myself a little bit, I don't mind admitting that." The 2012 Tour winner kept a watching brief, which is the best policy in such a long, demanding event, but had the legs to be part of the elite 11-man selection that formed with only nine kilometres remaining, after the final two of the 28 sections of cobbled lanes that make the Queen of the Classics so demanding.
"I had the legs, even in the final I felt strong," added the 33-year-old, who takes pride in "not being a one-trick pony" as he has won not just the Tour but also Olympic gold medals on the track and the road. As so often in the past, the gently rising lane to the exposed crossroads at Carrefour de l'Arbre and its twin section to Gruson were critical, as a lead quintet formed around Cancellara, joined a few kilometres after the cobbles were left by a sextet including Wiggins and Geraint Thomas, who were unable to match Terpstra when he broke clear six kilometres from the finish.
A man with deep knowledge of his sport's history and culture, Wiggins finally realised what he was achieving – being in the mix with names who will be remembered as Classics greats. "I just felt out-numbered," Wiggins said. "And the run-in was quite fast in the last five kilometres. Terpstra played it perfectly with [his team-mates] Stybar and Boonen." Indeed, Terpstra was able to play the team card, with his Omega Pharma - Quick-Step team boasting three of the 11 lead group. The chase behind was fitful, partly because any potential pursuers knew they would drag the Dutchman's team-mates into contention, but also because by this phase of Paris-Roubaix even those at the front have tipped over the edge into exhaustion.
"I was pinching myself a little it, I don't mind admitting it," he said. "To be in the final there going past (quadruple champion Tom) Boonen on the Carrefour (de l'Arbre), that was something special and then to come into the velodrome in a group with (triple winner Fabian) Cancellara... Unfortunately for Wiggins, the only team-mate still on hand was Thomas and he was anything but fresh. He had left most of his energy on the road in an escape with Boonen which lasted over 40 kilometres of the final phase, and which proved ultimately fruitless. Terpstra rode into the velodrome finish with a 20sec advantage; behind him the sprint from the chasing group was won by the German sprinter John Degenkolb, with Thomas in seventh, and Wiggins ninth in the same time.
"It gives confidence that I can match those guys and to go top 10 in hindsight is a good result." Thomas, once a winner of the junior Paris-Roubaix, is probably the best bet for a first British victory in the elite race at some future date but Wiggins has not ruled out a return either. This was, after all, the best ride by any cyclist with the Tour de France on his palmares in 22 years, since Greg LeMond – then in the twilight of his career – finished ninth in 1992.
Wiggins, who made his professional debut under the wing of double Paris-Roubaix winner Marc Madiot at French team Francaise des Jeux, hopes he will have the chance to take part again in Paris-Roubaix. Since Eddy Merckx's heyday in the 1970s, barely any Tour de France champions have braved the Roubaix cobbles, because there is a strong chance of crashing and compromising the build-up to the Tour.
"I'd love to come back in the next few years and do it," he said, although it will have to wait a bit as he is set to make his return to the track next year. Bernard Hinault famously won in 1981, while the late Laurent Fignon managed third in 1988, but these are rarities which put Wiggins's Sunday in Hell into perspective.
Wiggins also enjoyed spending time with the Team Sky classics squad.
"It has been fantastic to be with this group," he said. "It's a shame there's not another one next week."