Visma's future signing Menno Huising about his first experience with Paris-Roubaix roads: "I swore I would never come back, but I knew I would return here one day"

While the youngsters of Visma | Lease a Bike were in the thick of action at the elite Paris-Roubaix, the Dutch team's future signing Menno Huising had his first crack at the French cobbles in the U23 category and it went better than the 20-year-old Dutchman had hoped, he confides to In de Leiderstrui.

"Personally, I didn't know that there was another group riding ahead, until Carrefour de l'Arbre. We rode without earphones, so we didn't hear much. The cooperation between the pursuers was not great, otherwise we could have really closed it down,"

"I could have won or reached the podium, but I didn't have the legs to break it up. But yes, that is also Roubaix. "I may have lacked a little bit of confidence, because I mainly came here to see if I could do this," he expressed his initial ambition.

"Normally I only compete in climbing races, but I had the feeling that Roubaix or Flanders would suit me. Then the team said: let's give it a try. So I did that and it turns out I did pretty well."

And that leaves you wanting more. "Roubaix is always fun. I did it once with the juniors and then I lay in the grass with cramps, telling the soigneur that I would never come back. Then I rode out of the velodrome and I thought again: I think I will come back here one day."