There is a lot to be said for the strange sort of beauty that the chaos of Paris-Roubaix brings. The way the dust is thrown up in the air and the riders emerge through it like soldiers from the trenches. The way that they battle to the finish line with bruises and blood-stained bodies. The way they collapse in the velodrome, some from exhaustion, some from emotion, some not really sure why they’re collapsing at all. Maybe because they’ve made it through Roubaix, a race as close to war as you can get on two wheels.
But with a race that gives such drama and brutality, there are always sacrifices. The unlucky ones. There are some who don’t make it to the finish at all, who are left somewhere in the barren landscapes of Northern France, scooped into the broomwagon, or into team cars. For those who have the most misfortune, they are taken into ambulances, whisked off to a unfamiliar hospital bed, the bright, sterile lights of the ward a harsh contrast to the earthy, wet, muddy cobbles which took them prisoner.
Read more: A king of the Classics: Clinical Van der Poel joins the greats with Paris-Roubaix triumph
In this year’s fastest-ever edition of Paris-Roubaix, such high speed and stakes bought broken hearts – and bodies – in their numbers. Perhaps the most dramatic and memorable of them all was that of Team DSM’s John Degenkolb. He lay on the floor of the Roubaix velodrome at the end of the race, his body convulsing like he was writhing in pain. This discomfort wasn’t just physical from the crash that came only 20 kilometres away from the finish when Degenkolb was on track to get his best ever result in the Hell of the North since his 2015 victory, it was from a sort of visceral disappointment that looked to be tearing the German rider in half.
Degenkolb enters the velodrome alone (image: Getty)
Mathieu van der Poel, the eventual winner of the race who was involved in Degenkolb’s crash (some might argue the Alpecin-Elegant rider was at fault for bringing Degenkolb down, but Van der Poel said afterwards that he didn’t know what had caused the crash, “if it was my fault, my apologies,” he commented in the post-race press conference) went to console him after the race, placing a tentative hand on the DSM rider’s shoulder as he lay on the ground. For Degenkolb, his heart will take some time to heal.
“I have a lot of pain in my left shoulder. It’s not easy to describe how big the disappointment is. It’s been a…