Australian riders have certainly had their eras of success at Paris-Roubaix, this however isn’t one of them. Just three riders from the nation were on the start line in 2025 and the best placed finisher from among those came over the line in 82nd but given that that rider was a debuting 20-year-old Oscar Chamberlain (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), the embers of hope for a resurgence in the years ahead are still burning.
The second-youngest rider on the start-line of the race, a runner-up in the 2023 junior edition of Paris-Roubaix, Chamberlain went into the 2025 event "eager to get on the bike and on the cobbles and see what hell feels like", adding in an interview shared by Australian broadcaster SBS that the race for him was about getting experience, helping the team and making it to the velodrome within the time limit.
"That first sector, it's just bodies falling. Definitely it was what I was thinking it was going to be but even more," Chamberlain told Cyclingnews after he had crossed the line.
The Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider may have already experienced the 110km Paris-Roubaix juniors twice, coming 24th on his debut in 2022 before the second in 2023, but stepping into the elite ranks, and a race of 259.2km with around twice as many cobbled sectors, was something else altogether.
"[Paris-Roubaix is] sort of two races in one. The first part is just getting into that first couple of sectors – it's like the first finish line. Everyone's going full gas and going as hard as they can into into that first cobbled sector and from there it's just who can hang on and stay towards the front," said Chamberlain.
"It's just a completely different game and if I could do the junior one again, I would," he said with a grin.
Chamberlain – who just last week finished 57th as the youngest rider at the Tour of Flanders – managed to 'hang on' and get through on Sunday without any flat tyres or crashes while soaking up as much information as possible from his experienced team. Stefan Bissegger was the top finisher from the squad in seventh, even after an ill-timed flat.
The 2023 junior time trial world champion also achieved his goal of making it to the velodrome within the time limit with ease, coming through the line 12:21 behind winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck). The last rider home within the cut was Oier Lazkano (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), nearly ten minutes further back in 117th place.
It may not have been a debut that drew as much attention as that delivered by the youngest rider in the race, Visma-Lease a Bike's Matthew Brennan who came 44th and spent time among the favourites, but it was all a part of Chamberlain's journey from a self described little guy with a Spider Man bike to a rider that has aspirations to one day to repeat the feats of riders like 2007 winner Stuart O’Grady and 2016 victor Mathew Hayman.
"There have been some Aussies in the past who have done well, so I hope to be one of those one day," concluded Chamberlain.
