Dillon Corkey, in blue and orange kit, at the three-star Wallers to Hélesmes, Pont Gibus, sector of pavé during Sunday's Paris-Roubaix (Photo: Dario Belingheri-Getty Images)
Dillon Corkery's journey to Paris-Roubaix was not an easy one after the Picnic PostNL rider suffered a bulging disc earlier in the season. But he made it, and put up a good fight on Sunday, telling stickybottle it's a race he feels he can perform in with an incident-free build-up.
A powerful rider well-suited to the cobbles of northern France and Belgium, riding Paris-Roubaix has been a big goal for the Corkman. So much so, he was determined not to ride into the velodrome on a recon ride last week. He believes riders need to suffer the full pain of 'Hell of the North' before they experience the joy of the iconic finish on the concrete track.
"During the recon we did a good few cobble sectors," he told stickybottle. "I didn't know what the plan was at the time, whether we were going to be riding the last sectors and even into the velodrome.
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"In the end, we didn't actually go to the velodrome. But I said to my girlfriend beforehand that if we were going to it, then I wouldn't ride around it on a recon ride. I said I'd get to the gate and I'd stop.
"I've no interest in riding into that velodrome without having earned it. Looking back, as a kid I was the same. My grandparents bought me an Irish team kit jersey from Spin11 and I refused to put it on until I'd earned it. And I think that's what the velodrome meant to me - to ride on it, you have to suffer first."
The suffering before, and during, Roubaix
Corkery suffered on Sunday on his way to 68th - of 140 finishers, from 175 starters. And that was after trying to get into the early breakaway and then working to position his team leaders, 2015 race winner, John Degenkolb, and Pavel Bittner, who was 2nd at Scheldeprijs (1.Pro) last week.
Dillon Corkery tracks Mads Pedersen on the cobbles at 'Hell of the North' on Sunday (Photo: Xavier Pereyron)
Even before the race, the bulging disc injury he suffered after AlUla Tour resulted in a six-week hole in Corkery’s racing and training during the spring. He faced a race against time to get to any of the spring classics, though he started Tour of Flanders then the weekend before last, before going into Roubaix on Sunday.
"I tried really hard for the first 70k," he said of trying to get away in the early breakaway and maybe have a Paris-Roubaix debut up the road. "As we were getting positioned before the first sector, I was saying to myself 'I've gone really deep here already'. At that stage, there was no break gone and we have something like a 52kph average."
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Though he is regarded as very adept at looking after himself and positioning, Corkery said it was impossible to move up once the pavé sectors began. The team's efforts were not helped by the fact two of its riders - Julius van den Berg and Niklas Märkl - punctured as the pavé was just starting.
Corkery was able to move up on some of the sectors. And by the time the race got to Haveluy - the 11th sector of 30, with 155km completed and just over 100km to go - he was in the front group of about 40 with Degenkolb. That was a strong showing in itself.
However, at that stage he was "swinging". He even decided to display his map on his Wahoo for fear that reviewing the number of kilometres remaining might crack him.
He got onto the back of the Alpecin-Premier Tech train on the Haveluy sector, as he tried to position Degenkolb. But then his lack of training caught up with him, even though he was not distanced from the main group - chasing those on the attack - until Carrefour de l'Arbre, the fourth last sector in the final of the 258km race.
"If I had the legs I had at times last year, I think I could have been in a really good group," he said. "So that gives me confidence going into next year. With a normal run in, I think I could do something. And given the last few weeks, I think my ride was really good this time."
The iconic velodrome finish
And having savoured that velodrome finish, how did it feel when it came to pass?
"I thought I'd be a bit more emotional," he said of what were mixed emotions at knowing he could have done much better - probably top 20-30 - without the bulging disc ruining his early season.
"The crowds were insane and I was thinking to myself 'this is mental'. I was kind of smiling to myself. But when I did the lap on the velodrome, I did think I'd be a bit more emotional about. But I was just more hungry (to perform well in the future) than I'd ever been.
"I knew I needed to appreciate what I'd done that day, and how far I'd come in the last few weeks with the injury to even be here. But I also knew, on a good day, I could do a good result in this race."
He said being around Degenkolb, who is still so enthusiastic about the race having now done it 13 years in a row, also rubbed off in them.
"I thought I'd start crying when I got inside the Velodrome. But I had nothing like that. I just had this hunger inside me.... I wanted to come back and do something in this race."
