Thor Hushovd's outsider chances spoiled by flat tyre

By Katharina Schulz

Norwegian Thor Hushovd, who was counted among those riders with an outside chance of winning Paris-Roubaix, saw his dreams vanish into thin air when he had a puncture in the Forest of Arenberg. After that he merely struggled to make it to the finish line at all, and came in 43rd.

"Thor would have had a perfect race today if he could have hung on in there till the finish line. But he wasn't that lucky, and had to use up all his strength in order to reach the peloton again after the flat," Hushovd's trainer Atle Kvålsvoll said to NTB.

Kvålsvoll had already feared things might go like this, since Hushovd had not been able to train as much and get as many racing kilometres as would have been necessary after he suffered from intestinal troubles just before Milano-Sanremo. Hushovd is now planning a long training period to get in shape for the Giro d'Italia.