Guillaume Boivin puts in best ride by a Canadian at Paris-Roubaix in more than 30 years

At the 118th edition of Paris-Roubaix, Canadian champion Guillaume Boivin had a remarkable ride, finishing ninth. It’s the best result by a Canadian since Steve Bauer’s oh-so-close second place in 1990.

Boivin, who finished 31st at Paris-Roubaix Juniors in 2007 and didn’t finish the Hell of the North in 2013, rode a very savvy race. With about 68 km to go, Boivin was in the third group of mud-covered riders. The roads were drying up, following the soaking they and riders got earlier in the race. The cobbled sectors were still sloppy. Boivin’s Israel Start-Up Nation teammate Tom van Asbroeck was in the first group, up the road with Florian Vermeersch and Gianni Moscon. Then, superstar Mathieu van der Poel joined Boivin’s group, which also included Sonny Colbrelli. As van der Poel does, the Dutch rider started hauling.

Boivin followed van der Poel with seeming ease. Eventually, it was only van der Poel, Colbrelli and the rider from Montreal. Up ahead, the second group, with 2017 Paris-Roubaix winner Greg Van Avermaet, broke up. Van Avermaet crashed along with Tosh van der Sande and Max Walscheid. Moscon attacked and dropped his two breakaway-mates. At 38.4 km to go, Bovin, van der Poel and Colbrelli joined van Asbroeck and Vermeersch. That group then chased Moscon. Boivin, who had ridden conservatively to that point, started taking some pulls at the front. He also worked to shut down a move by van der Poel.

Moscon seemed to have a good lead in hand, but then things started to fall apart. At 29.6 km to go, he made a bike change because of a puncture. At 26 km to go, he crashed. About 6 km later, his gap had fallen from one minute to about 10 seconds.

On the Camphin-en-Pévèle sector, Boivin crashed and fell out of the second group. Soon, van der Poel accelerated. His group, with Colbrelli, caught Moscon, and then dropped the Ineos-Grenadiers rider. Boivin continued to soldier on. He got into a group with Yves Lampaert, Wout Van Aert, Heinrich Haussler and Christophe Laporte.

FIGHTERS!@Tomvanasbroeck finishes 8th, @Guillaumeboivin 9th.

What an incredible race by the two fighters!#ParisRoubaix #YallaISN pic.twitter.com/e4KlsUdzJc

— Israel Start-Up Nation / Israel Cycling Academy (@TeamIsraelSUN) October 3, 2021

At the Roubaix velodrome, van der Poel, Colbrelli and Vermeersch rode in to contest the win. Colbrelli took it at the line. Boivin duked it out amongst his group soon after, the Montrealer finishing ninth.

Steve Bauer was second at Paris-Roubaix, by 1 cm, in 1990. David Veilleux was 25th in 2011. Michael Barry finished 26th in 2010.

Image: ProCyclingStats