Just as he has promised, Tom Boonen lined up at the Paris-Roubaix with better disposition than a week earlier at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, and thus the Hell of the North four time winner couldn’t hide his disappointment to go away without yet another one, even though Omega Pharma-Quick Step dominated the event and took the spoils with Niki Teprpstra soloing the victory and two other riders finishing inside the top ten.

The 33-year old classics specialist couldn’t hide his irritation as he answered first questions asked by journalists.

"I don't think I have to say that. That was obvious," Boonen said when asked whether he had the legs to finish things off.

"Of course, if you're trying so hard yourself, it's only normal that at first you're a bit disappointed, then after that I'm happy, too. It was a day to forget quickly, but in the end we've won. I couldn't imagine that we would have lost the race. That would've been completely ridiculous," Boonen said.

Riding aggressively on cobbled sectors from the early stages of the race, Boonen launched an attack with no less than 65 kilometers to go, but claimed that it was a well calculated move as similar weather conditions have brought Johan Vansummeren a surprise victory in 2011.

However, his attempt fell short about 20 kilometers before the finish as the cooperation in the breakaway wasn’t perfect and the 33-year old Belgian lacked the kick to ride away from his companions.

"It's always hard with a headwind. It's easier to go alone when there are crosswinds. But I recalled the edition with Stuart O'Grady and Johann Vansummeren, which was the same. That's why I thought it was possible to win when I was up the road. I knew that at sector 9 the course is turning a little so you've got more tailwind. It was a calculated move," Boonen said. The reason for his attack was the breakaway of a group with teammates during Boonen's flat tyre problems. "We had to chase with the whole team. I know that it's a very hard sector. Stijn [Vandenbergh] was leading, and I was passing Niki. I told him, 'Let's go'. When I got there, I found out I was alone. That wasn't the goal, but I figured I might as well go for it."

Boonen also pointed out to another factor responsible for his failure – surprising BMC team tactics, who emerged as a main force to chase the breakaway despite a presence of their fast finisher, Thor Hushovd, in that group.

"The headwind hurts but behind you it also makes the group lose speed easily. We had the bad luck that BMC was constantly well organized and chasing their own rider [Thor] Hushovd. I can't understand that," Boonen said before adding that he "had never so much bad luck as this year".

Boonen also took a lot of time to mourn over a bad luck haunting him yesterday, nothing entirely unusual on the Hell of the North parcours.

"The moment I'm telling the guys to go flat out on a sector [16?], we are riding away with a group, but then I flatted. It took a long time before I managed to get a new wheel. Then I had to pass all the guys again who I had just dropped," Boonen said.

"I was in fourth position during their acceleration, but then in a corner the rider in third, Lars Boom, crashed. There was a gap of 50 metres and I needed 10 kilometres to come back because I had done a lot of efforts before that," Boonen said, while also referring to an unruly, dusty derailleur at that moment.

As a perfect balance is needed to keep the world spinning, Boonen’s bad luck was compensated by a good fortune accompanying Terpstra in his decisive move, as the Dutchman soloed his first victory in the Paris-Roubaix and this time managed to saved a, otherwise disastrous day for the Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

"We were very lucky because if someone would have joined him, we would have lost. Niki is very strong late in the race, but you need some luck, too. He already did a lot of work behind the group. I'm happy we won because otherwise there would've been a lot of complaints."

A splendid disposition in the first months of 2014 year and Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne victory certainly forecasted more successful spring campaign for the 33-year old Belgian. However, the reality proved to be different this time around as the highly anticipated rivalry between him and Cancellara never fully broke out and 29-year old Terpstra emerged as the strongest Omega Pharma-Quick Step classics rider this season.

Having confidence in his strength, Boonen hopes to recover well and bounce back with better results in the classics next season.

"I've won twice over here with much worse legs than today. Now it's time to recover for a week because it hasn't quite been my spring season. We'll try to do a good second part of the season, and next year we'll try again."