Paris-Roubaix. Hard day in the Hell of the North
It was a hard day on the dusty cobbles of Paris-Roubaix for the riders of Astana Pro Team, with Laurens de Vreese finishing 25th as the first Astana rider. He finished just in front of the young Davide Ballerini, who was riding for a top 20 result, but he crashed on one of the final cobble sections after a very strong ride in his first Paris-Roubaix. Ballerini was also part of the early breakaway, after Dmitriy Gruzdev, Daniil Fominykh, Zhandos Bizhigitov and Magnus Cort tried to go clear. Philippe Gilbert took the victory in the third Monument of the season.