John Degenkolb says he will be drawing on his experience of winning on the cobbles when he rides this Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix.
The German won the ‘Hell of the North’ in 2015 and after a surviving a career-threatening road accident the following January, he triumphed on stage nine to Roubaix in last year’s Tour de France.
Degenkolb’s victory that day has been described by the man himself as a “real game changer” and while it did not finish in the town’s famous velodrome, it traced many of roads and cobbles that will feature on Sunday.
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The 30-year-old says he is feeling good about the race and with Trek-Segafredo having had a bike specifically designed for the uneven surfaces, he feels he is ready to again raise his arms aloft on the Franco-Belgian border. “I really have the feeling that I am – condition and shape-wise – on a very stable base and that gives me a lot more confidence,” he said in a press release. “That (the bike) shows how important it is to get everything right.
It’s one of the toughest races and it’s extremely special that we still race on exactly the same roads as 120 years ago. “You can get a lot of bad luck, that’s for sure, but there’s one rule in this race: never give up.”
