As he stops for a comfort break after coming out of the Arenberg Forest on Tinkoff's Paris-Roubaix recon ride on Friday, he can barely get his bib shorts back up before an opportunistic fan gets in position for a selfie.
It was the same just an hour or so earlier when the Tinkoff bus pulled into an anonymous supermarket car park in the small French town of Denain, and the world champion stepped off and straight into the centre of a media scrum.
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.
