The iconic Hell of the North is rapidly approaching with 52.7km of cobbles, dirt and dust to wrap up the cobblestone season in a grand finale. Spearheaded by team captain Peter Sagan, Tinkoff-Saxo is looking to secure a good result in Paris-Roubaix despite having two riders suffering from hand injuries.
 
Few one-day races encapsulate the grandiosity, torment and sacrifice quite like Paris-Roubaix. And for Tinkoff-Saxo’s team captain Peter Sagan there’s no doubt that the cobblestone colossus truly is one of the great monuments of the sport.
 
“For me there’s no doubt that Paris-Roubaix is an iconic race, the Queen of the Classics or Hell of the North depending on your perspective. It’s always a very tough race and luck is an important factor as much can happen. You simply need to have a bit of luck in order to avoid crashes or unfortunate injuries. It’s so unpredictable. However, I feel in quite good shape and I’ve been in the mix in the final part of Paris-Roubaix before”, says Peter Sagan and adds about his chances:
 
“In the last races, I have been at the front but there was always something missing for me to win. My shape is quite good and I need to have confidence combined with luck and ride the race from the front in order to minimize what can go wrong. If I hit the day, I think that it’s possible for me to take part in the finale of Paris-Roubaix”.

Lining up alongside Peter Sagan are Matti Breschel, Maciej Bodnar, Chris Juul-Jensen, Matteo Tosatto, Nikolay Trusov, Michael Mørkøv and Pavel Brutt.
 
Sunday morning, the 113th edition of Paris-Roubaix sets off from Compiègne and travels 253.5 kilometers north en route to Roubaix and the famous velodrome, where the winner can pick up and raise the cobbled trophy. After 98.5km the riders got to brace themselves, as they hit the first cobbles of Troisvilles followed by 26 tiring sectors totaling 52.7km of rough racing. Once again the bottleneck afflicted Trouée d’Arenberg, the Mons-en-Pévèle and Carrefour de l’Arbre form the most challenging sectors, each of them given a difficulty rating of five stars.
 
Tinkoff-Saxo’s sports director Lars Michaelsen underlines the importance of riding the race from the front.
 
“Paris-Roubaix is a race, where you need to be at the front. It’s simply too risky to sit and hide and there are some key parts where it’s simply crucial to enter among the first in the bunch. We’ll have Trusov, Brutt, Mørkøv and Tosatto covering the first half of the race, while Juul-Jensen, Bodnar and Breschel have to stay with Sagan and keep him positioned into the finale”.

“However, both Juul-Jensen and Trusov are suffering from hand injuries, but we’ll have to wait and see how the status is on Sunday, when they hit the cobbles”, says Lars Michaelsen, who during his active career saw his fair share of action on the cobbles of northern France finishing within the top five in multiple editions.
 
“Sagan is of course our team captain and the other guys will support him fully to ensure that he can arrive as fresh as possible to the final part of the race. He’s one of the outsiders and we’re facing some very strong competition. I expect to see an early break but already around Arenberg the elimination race commences, where we’ll get the first predictions on who has the ambitions and legs. Then on Carrefour de l’Arbre with 18k to go, we’ll for sure see the favorites going toe-to-toe. And if everything goes according to the plan, Peter will be there”, finishes Lars Michaelsen.