"The body did not want to turn it around" - No Movistar finishers in Roubaix as ill Cortina struggled through Arenberg

Seven Movistar Team riders set off for Paris-Roubaix and none of them made it to the velodrome. The leader, Iván García Cortina, who was looking for a great result after his top 10 in the Tour of Flanders a week earlier, went out giving a show and entering very high in Aremberg, but soon realized that he was not going to be able to do that.

"Heads or tails. We knew how we arrived after being sick this week and with antibiotics until yesterday, things could go well or badly. I tried to play my cards in the best way, entering well positioned in Haveluy, then anticipate a little and see me entering ahead of the group in Arenberg to leave well behind, "said the Spaniard in his social media.

From seeing him very high up we went to not seeing him at all on the screen. No trace of him in the following sections and, of course, there was an explanation: "From then on the body did not want to turn it around and after some agonizing stretches without being able to follow the group I was in, I could not get back. Finally, after seeing that my body was not responding and that I basically couldn't go any further, I stopped, much to my regret".

Cortina regretted that after his great performance in De Ronde (ninth) a week earlier, he hoped to give more, but it was not to be: "After Flanders I would have liked very much to have finished with a better taste in my mouth this part of the classics but there are very few miracles in these races and it was not to be".

"Now we have a few days of recovery to turn it around and we are already looking forward to the next objectives. This does not stop. Thank you very much to everyone for the encouragement and we are still in the fight," ended the rider from Gíjon.