Blurred vision, flat tyres, and a collision with a spectator – Laurence Pithie sees dream scenario turn to nightmare at Paris-Roubaix

For a short while, Laurence Pithie dared to dream. “It was all going perfectly,” he recalls. Too perfectly.

Paris-Roubaix is a race that can flip in an instant, and the New Zealander could barely believe the punishment he would go on to receive from the fates of the Hell of the North.

“I don't really know what to say, to be honest,” he told Cyclingnews outside the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team bus in Roubaix, showered but still shell-shocked.

Pithie, who has struggled in the Classics so far, was having the race of his life. Nestled into the eight-man move that formed on the Pont Gibus sector and turned out to be the precursor to the winning move, Pithie was floating over the cobbles. The Paris-Roubaix podium was creeping into focus on the horizon.

Until it wasn’t. A puncture with 78km to go led to a scrappy bike change, and while he was able to work his way back with teammate Jordi Meeus and the eventual winner Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), worse was yet to come.

“That’s where it all started going downhill,” he said. “Contact lens fell out, crashed on Mons-en-Pevele, crashed again… it was a bit of a mess.”

The contact lens was lost to the pavé with just over 50km to go on sector 12, and it led to his race being lost on the next sector, Mons-en-Pevele, where he crashed hard through a left-hander on the back of the group that was by this point being led by comeback king Mathieu van der Poel, chasing the tearaway Van Aert and Pogačar.

“Sometimes with the wind, when you look back, it just flies out,” Pithie said of the contact lens issue. “It's only happened once before, but I mean, it's just annoying because one side of the vision is clear and the other side is blurry.

“So, yeah, obviously I wasn't taking the best lines. It would have played a part [in the crash].”

“I still felt pretty good at that point. I was just on the back of that group, hoping Van der Poel would do the work to bring us back. I still had hope to be in the mix, but yeah, it was game over.”

Insult was soon added to injury as Pithie, now a group behind, collided with a roadside fan.

“I hit a spectator on the side, coming out of a corner. I mean, the spectator was pretty close. We were going super fast, and yeah, I just ploughed straight into them. They were a little bit too close on the corner, over the road," he explained.

“We're going so fast, it happens. I hope they're okay, to be honest, because they didn't sound too good on the ground while I was trying to get up and go again.”

Pithie’s hopes of a top result had well and truly faded, though his race wasn’t over, and he rolled into the Roubaix velodrome and walked away with 26th place.

“It's disappointing, but it is what it is, it's bike racing. This is such a crazy race. So much stuff happens. You need to have a bit of luck,” he said.

“I’ll be back next year. I still love this race. I didn't even make it to the cobbles last year because of the crash, so, yeah, this will only fuel the fire for next year.”

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