World champ Sagan seals Paris-Roubaix with epic break

Slovakia's Peter Sagan outsprint Swiss champion Silvan Dillier to become the first rider since 1981 to claim the Paris-Roubaix 'Monument' classic.

Slovakia's Peter Sagan (front) competes to win during the 116th edition of the Paris-Roubaix one-day classic cycling race, between Compiegne and Roubaix, on April 8, 2018 in Compiegne, northern France.
AFP

Slovakia's Peter Sagan (front) competes to win during the 116th edition of the Paris-Roubaix one-day classic cycling race, between Compiegne and Roubaix, on April 8, 2018 in Compiegne, northern France.

World champion Peter Sagan timed his effort perfectly to become the first rider since 1981 to claim the Paris-Roubaix 'Monument' classic with the rainbow jersey on his shoulders as he tamed his rivals in awe-inspiring fashion on Sunday.

The Slovakian accelerated 55 km from the finish line at the Roubaix Velodrome to catch the day's breakaway riders and get rid of the strongest of them, Swiss Silvan Dillier, in a sprint finish.

Tour of Flanders champion Niki Terpstra, of the Netherlands, came home third in the 257km race, 54.5km of them being the famed cobbled sectors in northern France.

Terpstra his Quick Step-Floors team, who had been dominant on the Flanders classics so far, simply could not contain the Bora-Hansgrohe leader Sagan.

Once the man who won the last three editions of the road cycling world championships jumped away from the group of main favourites with 55km left, he never looked back.

Sagan demonstrated great sang-froid in a nail-biting finish at the end of the 'Hell of the North' to add to his 2016 Tour of Flanders title.

'Queen of the Classics'

Paris-Roubaix, also dubbed the 'Queen of the Classics', is one of the five Monument classics with Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Lombardy.

"Amazing. I'm so tired after this race. I avoided crashes, and, actually, I feel less tired than the previous years," Sagan, the first rider since Frenchman Bernard Hinault to win here as a world champion, said.

"Thank you to all my team mates. They did a great job, keeping everyone altogether. And in the end I made the winning move."

Early woes for top contenders

Several top contenders suffered early woes as Italian Gianni Moscon crashed before making it back to the peloton, with French champion Arnaud Demare and Belgian champion Oliver Naesen being delayed by mechanical problems as the bunch hit the first cobbled sectors.

There were concerns over Belgian rider Michael Goolaerts, who was taken to a hospital after receiving CPR treatment on the side of the road after a crash.

"No update on Michael Goolaerts yet. We kindly ask to refrain from speculation as we wait for an update on his situation. Our thoughts are with his family and friends now," his Verandas Willems-Crelan team said.

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