Geraint Thomas said he was a marked man at last week’s Tour of Flanders but hopes the attention on Bradley Wiggins at Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix will help him.
The Cobbled Classics season comes to an end with perhaps the most prestigious one-day race in the cycling calendar.
The Queen of the Classics covers 253km with almost 53km of cobbles over 27 different sectors, making Paris-Roubaix a war of attrition.
And although Thomas is better suited to last week’s Flanders race, where he finished 14th having come eighth the year before, he believes the furore surrounding Wiggins’s last road race before returning to track cycling could work in his favour.
“He’s super motivated, he’s had this target since November, even before that, so yeah we’re looking forward to it,” said Thomas about his high-profile Sky teammate.
“This race suits the team as a whole more than Flanders, so we’ve a few cards to play. As long as there’s a Sky jersey on the top step of the podium, that’s all we really want.”
Thomas says he’s got over the disappointment of last week when he went into the race as perhaps the biggest favourite following his E3 Harelbeke victory and third place at Gent-Wevelgem the week before.
“It was obviously disappointing but it was kind of strange being such a marked out man. I’m not really used to that, especially in a race as big as Flanders.
“I didn’t quite have it on the day but the form doesn’t go away overnight, hopefully it can be a bit different tomorrow.
“In the race it won’t just be me they’ll be looking at, they’ll have to watch the lot of us (Sky riders) so I guess that’ll help for sure.
“We’ve just got to be proactive and ride aggressive, and we’ll see what we can do.”
– chances to attack –
Aggressive riding will be the name of the game on Sunday and Belgian Greg Van Avermaet, third in Flanders last week, says he believes there will be a chance to attack from a long way out.
“There are a lot of favourites to win tomorrow, we have a good team and we’ll attack the race,” said the BMC leader.
“Roubaix is not the same as Flanders where the winner goes away not far from the finish. It’s very possible to stay ahead (over a greater distance).”
Last year’s winner Niki Terpstra has been in good form recently, finishing second at both Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem.
However, last year he could capitalise on Etixx-Quick Step teammate Tom Boonen being the favourite, whereas this year the joint record four-time winner is out injured.
“It’s true in the past I’ve sometimes capitalised on the favourites being marked,” admitted the Dutchman.
“It’s more difficult when I have to carry the weight of expectation.”
Terpstra said the two men to avoid reaching the Roubaix Velodrome alongside are Alexander Kristoff, the winner in Flanders last week, and Olympic and world timetrial champion Wiggins.
Kristoff, though, admits that Roubaix is not ideally suited to his abilities.
“I hope to be fighting for victory but as I’ve said before, I’ve never felt so strong in Roubaix so I know it will be difficult,” he said.
“I always felt stronger in Flanders with the cobbled climbs rather than the flat cobbles, so we will see.” Sprint-specialist Kristoff is one of two riders that almost everyone else will be hoping to drop before the finish at the Velodrome.
The other is John Degenkolb, who beat Kristoff in a sprint finish at Milan-San Remo and finished second in Roubaix last year.
The Giant-Alpecin rider knows he will be the man to beat if it comes down to a sprint finish.
“I’m really confident for tomorrow, this is a race I really like” said the German.
“I’m not in a position where I need to attack and as long as I can follow the best guys, I don’t need to take action.”