A victory at Paris-Roubaix would have been a fairytale ending to Bradley Wiggins’ five-year stint at Team Sky but on this occasion it was not to be.
The man who has done as much as anyone to transform cycling in the UK in the last few years put in a pretty heroic performance. When he briefly left the pack behind to chase down the breakaway group with 32 kilometres remaining there was a real sense of excitement that it might just happen – that his dream of signing off with Sky with a win at this most fabled of all Monuments might actually come true. It would have been fitting to score that final victory at a velodrome too – a nod back to his early track successes.
But let’s not be too downhearted that the dream didn’t come true. Wiggo was beaten fair and square by an incredibly impressive John Degenkolb, whose strength in bridging the final gap and then finding a winning sprint just minutes later deserves enormous respect.
Wiggins’ reaction was typically classy, honest and funny. He said: “I was pleased with the race, you know? Just to be able to attack in Roubaix. When I attacked, I was right up the back of the motorbikes and it was like I was 16 again, training on the mews outside my house, thinking I was it. That was nice. Something to tell the kids. 'Your Dad was shit at Paris-Roubaix but he was leading it at one stage!'
“I attacked with Sep Vanmarcke with five kilometres to go but by then it is bit like the Titanic when it is going down in the film and they are all hanging on, and people are falling. But I'm pretty happy. I've won the Tour, you know? I've had a good run.”
It must hurt not to have won the race he’s been dreaming of winning since he was a teenager but we hope Brad’s pain is soon replaced by a richly deserved sense of pride about five glorious years at Team Sky and a sense of keen anticipation about the next chapter with Team Wiggins.
