Paris-Roubaix is over for another year. Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) won with a sprint inside the Roubaix velodrome, we had the first ever black African to finish the race, there was the usual deluge of crashes and punctures.
Now, there's nothing left to do but wait another year for the next edition. To help pass the time, here are the best photos and tweets from Paris-Roubaix 2019.
It takes a lot to overshadow a moustache like the one Mitch Docker (EF Education First) has, but a face caked in dust and incredible helmet hair will do just that.
Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) was one of the dark horses to take the win on the cobbles, but after a mechanical in the Arenberg forest followed by a heavy fall after a bike switch, the Belgian had to chase back to the main group twice.
Astonishingly, Van Aert found himself in the decisive break of the day, hanging on until around the 20km to go mark before he paid for his troubles and was dropped.
The 2015 winner John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) was unable to make much of an impact in 2019's edition of the race, finishing 28th, three minutes down on Gilbert.
Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) shows off the best way to prepare for a day on the cobbles.
After Nils Politt unexpectedly found himself on the podium, Katusha-Alpecin made the most of it by uploading as many pics as they could showing off a great result for the outfit. The contrasting emotions of Politt and Mads Würtz Schmidt in the below images couldn't be more pronounced.
Never was a beer more earned than Gilbert's post-Roubaix shower beer.
Here's a phenomenal video filmed by a spectator showing Gilbert attacking followed closely by Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and the rest of the leading group.
Koen de Kort (Trek-Segafredo) was too tired to even smile properly after 257km of the Hell of the North.
The only person more tired than Koen de Kort? It's that man Wout Van Aert of course.
The reigning champion could only muster a fourth place finish, as he continues to find his form this season.
It was a great day overall for Deceuninck - Quick-Step, with four riders finishing in the top 10, but a bad day for Iljo Keisse, who crashed head-on into some road furniture, ending his race and sending him to the hospital. Swipe right on his Instagram post to see a painful x-ray showing his fractured elbow.
Bahrain-Merida's Marcel Sieberg was one of 74 riders who didn't finish the race this year, abandoning due to illness. The German posted an update explaining a medical examination revealed he had bronchitis and would be on antibiotics for the next eight days, fun!
There's no other way to celebrate winning the race than in your very own Roubaix shower.
Chapeau Philippe!
