British talent rode the Paris-Roubaix of his life - But he was astonished with Mathieu van der Poel's comeback

Lewis Askey is a rider that has ridden under the radar this spring, but has achieved some very interesting results. After riding to a 21st spot at the Tour of Flanders, he was Great Britain's best at Paris-Roubaix where he finished just outside the Top10. The 24-year old detailed some of his race whilst also giving his point of view of Mathieu van der Poel's comeback first-hand.

"For me, it was really impressive to see the level of the top riders again. The race Van der Poel had... the fact he was even at the front at the end, I’m truly amazed by it. It really shows the level they are playing at," Askey said on the Watts Occuring podcast with Luke Rowe.

The NSN Cycling Team rider entered Roubaix as one of the team's cards alongside Biniam Girmay, but luck was not on Girmay's side who rode almost the entire Trouée d'Arenberg on a flat tire. The Briton in the meantime managed to avoid most major splits and mistimed mechanicals, and ended up being in one of the front groups after the first key sector of the race.

There, Mathieu van der Poel had two punctures and lost two minutes in the blink of an eye. Then he initiated his comeback, which Askey eventually got to see. "I don't know how much time we had on that sector before Arenberg. He was, from what I understand, still not in that group. We came out of there with maybe fifteen riders. It perhaps came back together a bit on that big road. I had to make a massive effort just to be there, so that cooked me a bit".

"He came from behind and brought a group of twenty to thirty riders back to us," the 24-year old details. "To me, that is so impressive. The fact that he had already made all that effort at that point just to be back. After that, he was in the front group again, had to swap (take turns, ed.) again. How much strength it takes to keep returning time and again."

It was a show of strength from the Dutchman, however with too much time to take back in order to return to contention for victory in the Hell of the North. Bad luck affected all of the riders who were heavily discussed as victory contenders, albeit in different ways, but that is part of the third monument of the season.

"I think you never get a straightforward Roubaix, a simple race where no one has bad luck. You always get a problem. We saw with Van der Poel that it was just too much. With Pogi... could Wout have stayed with him if he hadn't faced problems? How much did that take out of him? I don't know."

However Askey could be happy with the outcome of the race, not just his result, but with the rider who lifted the large cobble prize on the final podium: Wout Van Aert.

"I was always a fan. I think, as strange as it is to say because he is one of the best riders in the world, he was always a bit of an underdog. I think so many people wanted him to win," he adds. "A bit of a fairytale ending, then. I think that’s very cool."