ROUBAIX, France — Canada’s Alison Jackson was a surprise winner of the Paris Roubaix Femmes as she edged a thrilling sprint finish after many of the race favourites had been caught up in crashes.
Italy’s Katia Ragusa was second with Marthe Truyen of Belgium in third place at the women’s Paris Roubaix, a 145 kilometre (90 miles) one-day-race, at the velodrome in Roubaix, northern France.
The 34-year-old Canadian rider, who returned to the SVB team this year, threw up her arms as she crossed the finish line.
After dropping to the ground in exhaustion, Jackson got back up and broke into a dance on the infield.
“When we did the pre-ride, I just dreamed of winning,” Jackson said according to AP, “but a lot of times, those dreams just stay dreams. It´s unreal to make it happen in real life. I have few words.”
It’s been 33 years since Steve Bauer narrowly missed out on the victory at Paris-Roubaix by just one centimetre, finishing a hard-fought second place in a breakaway sprint behind winner Eddy Planckaert in the Roubaix Velodrome in 1990.
No Canadian has stood on the podium since Bauer’s achievement until Jackson added her name to the history books and cemented herself as the first Canadian, and North American, rider to win the Hell of the North in the Paris-Roubaix Femmes 2023.
“It’s a fantastic achievement for Alison and Canadian cycling. Congratulations to her for such a historic victory as the first Canadian man or woman to win Paris-Roubaix,” Bauer said.
Most of the big hitters in the women’s race missed out on the early 18-rider breakaway, including Lotte Kopecky and Elisa Longo Borghini.
The breakaway mostly managed to navigate the slippery cobbled sectors without any problem, and they were able to maintain about a 10-second gap on the peloton as the six leaders reached the velodrome for a final lap.
Jackson moved up the track and used a big sprint to reach the finish line first.
Kopecky finished seventh when she outsprinted the remnants of the peloton, which included three-time world champion and former Olympic champ Marianne Voss. Borghini, the bronze medallist at the Tokyo Games, was a few seconds behind them.
Dylan van Baarle is back to defend his title in the men’s race, though Milan-San Remo winner Mathieu van der Poel and Olympic silver medalist Wout van Aert are the favorites along with Mads Pedersen and Filippo Ganna.
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