One person who was particularly happy to see Tom Boonen miss out on a fifth victory at Paris-Roubaix was ex-professional Roger de Vlaeminck.
De Vlaeminck jointly holds the record with Boonen for the most wins in the Hell of the North, having won the race in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1977, and these exploits earned him the nickname “Monsieur Paris–Roubaix.”
Boonen was narrowly beaten by Australian Mathew Hayman at Roubaix last week which prevented the Belgian taking the outright record himself, and De Vlaeminck was happy to see that he can still hold onto the joint record.
“Boonen rode fantastic, down to the last 200 meters but then he let himself get blocked in”, De Vlaeminck told Het Laatste Nieuws after the race.
“I’m not coming here to see Boonen lose , but honestly I’m glad he did not win,” he admitted.
Honesty – ya don’t get it often these days