A rider who was locked out of the velodrome in last year’s edition of Paris-Roubaix returned to the race and secured a phenomenal top-10 finish in 2019.
Evaldas Šiškevičius, a Lithuanian with the Delko Marseille Provence squad, was a major talking point after the 2018 edition of the ‘Hell of the North’, when he finished outside the time limit and found the gates of the finishing track were locked.
The 30-year-old returned to the race on Sunday (April 14), his perseverance paying off as he finished in the top-10 after 257km of brutal racing.
Team boss Frédéric Rostaing said: “I am very proud of the 9th place for Evaldas in this race.
“He took advantage of his perseverance that helped him finish the event last to finish with the best this year.
“He deserves it. This top-10 resonates like a great victory and corroborates the very good beginning the team has had, being ubiquitous on major events since January.”
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Last year Šiškevičius had set himself the goal of finishing Paris-Roubaix, but things went awry when he slipped out the back with more than 40km remaining.
He rode 23km with the broom wagon looming over his shoulder, before puncturing on the five-star Carrefour de l’Arbre cobbled sector.
It looked like this might be the end of his race, but he was able to get a wheel change from a broken down team car that was being towed to the line.
An hour after Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) had claimed victory, Šiškevičius found that the organisers had locked the gates of the Roubaix Velodrome.
A sympathetic marshal let the rider in and he was able to cross the line, albeit outside of the time cut.
But it was a different story for Šiškevičius this year.
After holding is position in the peloton for much of the race, he attacked 20km from home and rode to the line in the company of Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team), Oliver Naesen (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Zdenek Štybar (Deceuninck – Quick-Step), finishing 9th and just 47 seconds down on race winner Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck - Quick-Step).
Evaldas Šiškevičius at the 2017 Critérium du Dauphiné (Photo: Yuzuru SUNADA)
(Image credit: Yuzuru SUNADA)
His previous best result was a second-place finished on stage three of the 2017 Critérium du Dauphiné.
Šiškevičius said after the race: “I’m so happy.
“I wanted to show that I could do something else.
“The assistants shouted on the side of the road and the guys were crazy in the car.
Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
