Sir Bradley Wiggins drew the curtain on his career with Team Sky with an 18th place in Paris-Roubaix that was neither dream nor disaster. The 2012 Tour de France winner could hold his head high after being one of a select group who fought out the final kilometres. The German John Degenkolb played a tactical blinder to win his second Classic in a few weeks from six riders, 31 seconds ahead of the main pack, including Wiggins and his team-mate Luke Rowe, who finished off the front of the chasers in eighth.
“I’ve just kissed [the Team Sky chief] Dave Brailsford on the forehead and told him we’ve gone through a lot together,” Wiggins said. “He’s known me since I was an 18-year-old streak of piss and now I’m a 35-year-old streak of piss. I was pleased with the race. I wanted a clean run; I didn’t have one puncture or crash. I had the legs to win but everyone in that group did. It could have been any one of us.”
If there was one regret for Sky, it was not Wiggins’ 18th place. This is so unpredictable a Classic that victory for him here was a long shot, if a valiant one at that. What the British team could have done without was the misfortunes of Geraint Thomas, their stand-out performer this spring, who had two punctures early on, regaining the peloton on both occasions only for a brutal crash to end his race just after the toughest cobbled section, the Arenberg Forest, with 93.5km left.
Thomas was squeezed up against the kerb on a right-hand bend and fell heavily, chasing vainly before calling it a day. That in turn left Sky short of bodies in the finale. On the other hand, the prospect of Rowe, who is 25, teaming up with his fellow Welshman Thomas and the ever-present Ian Stannard is one to relish for next year.
This was a slightly muted edition of the Hell of the North, with no dominant rider or team able to stamp their authority on the 253km. A strong tailwind made for an epic fast event run off at over 43kph average – not far from record speed – but made it hard to create attacking opportunities.
As a result, it was not until after the final tough section of cobbles at Carrefour de l’Arbre on the final run-in that the decisive move formed, with Degenkolb putting in a solo chase to join three leaders in the final 10km.
That little group, with Degenkolb and the Belgians Greg Van Avermaet and Yves Lampaert, swelled to seven by the final laps of the historic velodrome, with Degenkolb timing his sprint to perfection. In doing so he added this Classic to his victory in Milan-San Remo in late March and became the first German to win here since Josef Fischer won the opening edition in 1896.
The most dramatic moment – and the one which will be debated in years to come – came shortly after Arenberg with 91km remaining, when a level crossing gate dropped as the peloton came through. At least 25 riders squeezed round the barriers before a gendarme managed to stop the rest in the nick of time as a high-speed train bore down on them, and the front part of the peloton was slowed to wait for those who had been held up. Going through level crossings is – given the dangers – against the rules, but the organisers confirmed later that no action would be taken.
Wiggins had ridden cautiously through the cobbled sectors as the peloton repeatedly split and reformed but he came to the front in time to go on the attack as the race approached the final 30km. He quickly linked up with the Belgians Stijn Vandenbergh and Jens Debusschere, with the strong Czech Zdenek Stybar making a promising quartet, but the move gained 15 seconds before fizzling out as the others soft-pedalled. It could have been the prelude to a dream finale but instead was what the French call un baroud d’honneur, the final flourish from a duelling swordsman who knows the end is imminent.
“It was nice to be able to attack,” Wiggins said. “I had a go where I said I would. I was in a pretty good position, no one really expected it there [but] I was lumbered with a couple of guys who didn’t want to work. When I attacked I was right up the motorbikes, it was like being 16 again, training on the mews next to my house in London. That’s something to tell the kids: your dad was shit at Paris-Roubaix but he was leading the main group at one stage.”
As Degenkolb and Stybar guided the seven leaders into the finish, Wiggins attacked out of the main group at 5km to go in an attempt to salvage something with the Belgian Classics specialist Sep Vanmarcke but again it was to no avail.
“By then it’s like the Titanic when it’s going down in the film and they are all hanging on for grim death, people falling, everyone trying to squeeze something out. It looked like no one had anything left, normally with this wind it would split in pieces.”
Wiggins leaves top-level road racing for the newly formed Team Wiggo and his build-up to the world hour record and the 2016 Olympics in Rio with no regrets, he says, although it can only be conjectured what he might have managed in this race if he had taken it seriously at the start of his career rather than the end.
“I had opportunities before. I rode this 13 years ago and had my chance. This was like a new job in the last two years, a bit of passion.”
The day had begun and ended in front of banners brandished by the British fans who have flocked to watch Wiggins and company in the last few years but the 2012 Tour winner noted his peers, too, had said their farewells during the day.
“It was nice, guys you’ve been banging heads with for years and never spoken to, coming up in the race and congratulating you on your career. It’s hard not to get emotional. I’m pretty happy.”
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