Niki Terpstra wins Paris - Roubaix
Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team rider Niki Terpstra just won the biggest race of his career - the most prestigious monument of cycling - in commanding fashion. He won Paris-Roubaix solo on Sunday and he did it with a little help from Compex.
It looked to be very close in the final kilometers. Terpstra's lead was down to less than 9" inside 4.5km to go. However, Terpstra's teammates helped to control the pace of the chasing group behind, and he continued to go full gas. As a result of his fantastic effort on a perfectly timed attack, he reached the Roubaix velodrome with a gap between 16 and 20 seconds.
Terpstra still looked behind him before celebrating during the bell lap, but had plenty of time to raise his arms in celebration for the 24th (22nd road) victory for OPQS, in three disciplines, in 2014. Stybar finished 5th and Boonen 10th. Terpstra is now ranked 3rd in the UCI WorldTour Individual Classification with 200 points, and OPQS has further solidified their 1st place UCI WorldTour team ranking with 543 points.
"I feel happy, but really tired," Niki Terpstra said with a laugh. "When we came together in the last cobblestone section - at the end of the cobblestones - Wilfried Peeters told us if we go for the sprint we go with Tom. But, if you can attack, it's always good to open the final. So it was up to me and Zdenek to attack and they know I like to do it. So, 20 seconds later I attacked. It was the good one. When I looked behind me I saw there was a gap, so it was just full gas to the finish line. Don't look back, because that doesn't help. I'm so satisfied. Finally I won a big one. We had a healthy, comfortable pressure from within the team to perform. The kind that motivates us to do well. We won a lot of races but not a big one yet. We wanted to prove we can win a big one. Today we really proved we are a strong team that can also win the biggest races. Paris-Roubaix is a crazy race, old fashioned, but that's why it's special and why I love it that much.
"I'm happy with the feeling I had and the fighting spirit I displayed," Boonen said. "I'm of course happy that we won in the end, but I of course wasn't doing all the efforts to get 10th place, I was doing them to win the race. I had a lot of bad luck today. But, I managed to get back in front on time, every time. As I said a couple days ago, if someone else on the team wins besides me today I will be excited as if I had won the race myself."
Guided by Dr. Helge Riepenhof all OPQS riders use their personal Compex Wireless intensively, mainly for recovery, but also for pain relief and gaining strength.
