Sebastian Langeveld was the lone Garmin-Sharp rider in the 11-rider group that emerged near the end of yesterday's Paris-Roubaix and found himself outnumbered in the finale. Being no fast sprinter, he had to go on the offensive but hesitated a bit too long when Niki Terpstra launched his winning move and so had to settle for 8th.

For the 2014 season, Sebastian Langeveld left Orica-GreenEDGE to become part of a three-pronged Garmin-Sharp attack with Johan Vansummeren and Nick Nuyens in the cobbled classics. After a slow start to his classics campaign, he found his legs when it mattered most as he finished in the top 10 at both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

In yesterday's edition of the Hell of the North, Langeveld showed great strength when he was part of the 6-rider chase group that made it back to Peter Sagan, Fabian Cancellara, Sep Vanmarcke, John Degenkolb, and Zdenek Stybar in the finale. Being up against three Omega Pharma-Quick Step, two Giant-Shimano, and two Sky riders, however, he found himself outnumbered and as he is no fast sprinter, he had to invent something to come away with the win.

Langeveld never launched an attack and saw his winning opportunity slip away when Niki Terpstra made the race-winning move 6km from the finish. The strong Dutchman regretted having hesitated a bit too long to follow his compatriot.

"When Terpstra went I had to decide in a split second," he said. "It was not up to me to chase. Sky had a couple of men in front, Degenkolb had a teammate with him. 

"On the cobbles, tt was clear that I could not go with riders like Vanmarcke and Cancellara, but I came back alongside Niki, Boonen, Wiggins and Thomas [and De Backer]. 

"Personally, I'm eight, I'm happy with it. I had no punctures, no bad luck even though I narrowly avoided a few crashes."

Despite not being Terpstra's teammate, Langeveld celebrated his compatriot's win.

"This is a great day for Dutch cycling. It was so beautiful. I am also a supporter of all other Dutch riders"