"I never thought I would achieve this", says Paris-Roubaix breakthrough Tom Devriendt

Almost every year Paris-Roubaix sees a breakthrough performance, on a race that is frequently marked by the chaos, with crashes and punctures influencing the result of every edition heavily. This year, Tom Devriendt was the big surprise of the race, having raced in a tactically brilliant fashion to finish a surprise fourth place.

Devriendt came as a piece in Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux's lineup, however never would he have expected such a strong performance. After making it to the front split early in the race, he attacked alongside Matej Mohoric with around 120 kilometers to go and would end up resisting deep into the race alongside the Slovenian.

After Mohoric punctured Devriendt found himself alone in front in the final 35 kilometers. Caught by the Slovenian once again, with Yves Lampaert and Dylan van Baarle alongside. When the Dutchman attacked for the win with 18 kilometers to go Devriendt was dropped, but he took the wheels of Wout van Aert and Stefan Kung who came from behind to stay in the fight for the podium.

"I never thought I would achieve this. This was not a day in hell for me. I kept pushing constantly to get as far as possible in the final. When Van Aert and Küng came to me, I gave everything," he told Sporza. He ended up staying with the group, and was mere centimeters away from the third place of Stefan Küng.

"It is difficult for me to take my own chance. During this Paris-Roubaix I ended up in such a situation. This was a very beautiful day," he concluded. Intermarché have had an incredible collective performance with six riders in the Top25 as Adrien Petit came sixth, Alexander Kristoff 12th, Taco van der Hoorn 16th, Andrea Pasqualon 19th and Baptiste Planckaert 23rd, bringing in many important point for the team's World Tour maintenance fight.