2018 Paris Roubioux - Peter's golden touch

By Felouch Kotek - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68151314

The 2018 Paris-Roubaix, a challenging one day 257 km race was won this year by current World Champion Peter Sagan. Sadly during the race 23 year old professional cyclist Michael Goolaerts suffered a heart attack and subsequently died. Peter Sagan was the first World Champion to win the Paris-Roubaix since Bernard Hinault's victory in 1981. Sagan had launched, in collaboration with Specialized, a gold coloured bike before the race. Ever the showman he rode the race on one of the golden bikes and won with a remarkable demonstration of strength and confidence. 55km from the finish line Sagan sped away from the main group forcing other riders to test themselves against this pace. The Swiss rider Silvan Diller and the Dutch rider Niki Terpstra rose to the challenge taking second and third place respectfully. 

Queen of the Classics

The Paris-Roubioux is one of the five races which make up the Monument classics which are; Milan-San Remo (Italy). the Tour of Flanders (Belgium), Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Belgium) and the Tour of Lombardy (Italy). These races make up part of the UCI calendar and are highly sought after titles. Each has its own character the Paris-Roubioux has a mixture of rough cobbled sections and trying weather. Finishing in the Roubioux velodrome for a sprint finish in front of a packed audience.