Phinney wins Paris-Roubaix for second time

Image 1 of 32

Taylor Phinney (Trek-Livestrong) won his second successive Under 23 Paris Roubaix title ahead of Jens Debusschere (PWS-Eijssen Cycling Team) and Fabien Taillefer (Team Véranda Rideau Sarthe) on Sunday.

The American came into the race as a clear favourite having won the event last year and claiming four stages and the overall at the Olympia’s Tour earlier in the month.

“I was going into the race as a pretty big favourite,” Phinney told Cyclingnews. “But I was confident in my own abilities and in my team’s abilities.”

Those abilities were put to the test early on with a dangerous break forming that included Taillefer. Trek-Livestrong countered by placing Benjamin King in the move and with around 50 kilometres to go and the gap beginning to come down from under three minutes Phinney decided to act.

“It was a crosswind on one of the sections and I just decided to make it harder for everyone and split the group up. There were still around 100 guys left,” he said.

“I ended up bridging across to the breakaway with Debusschere and it ended up being Fabien, Jens, Ben King and me.”

With a teammate in the break Phinney asked for King to work on the front, keeping the pace high enough to ward off attacks, while also making sure that the peloton didn’t come back.

“Ben King slaved on the front for me and did an incredible ride to keep the speed but. He was on the front 90 per cent of the time until we got to the big sections of cobbles. I told him that if he got me there I’d win the race for him. The peloton never came back.”

With 15 kilometres to go and King dropped, the trio had a gap of around a minute. They began to attack each other, knowing that Phinney had a strong sprint. However they remained together and despite forcing the American track specialist to lead out, Phinney was strong enough to seal the win.

“I just kept it under control and lead it out. I new that if it came down to a sprint I could win. I had to put pain aside and just win.”