Mat Hayman cried in disbelief after winning Paris-Roubaix, the cycling monument that has defined his career.
The well-respected Australian cycling domestique won a five-man sprint to win the race known as the Hell Of The North and the Queen Of The Classics.
It is the fifth win by an Australian in one of the sport's five monuments - the top one-day classics.
This is also the third monument win for the Australian Orica-GreenEDGE team since their 2012 formation.
Hayman, who turns 38 on April 20, joins Stuart O'Grady as the only Australians to win Paris-Roubaix.
It was a win against huge odds - Hayman originally was ruled out of the European spring classics when he broke an arm while racing in late February.
He had only been back on the road for 10 days, having spent three hours a day on an indoor bike to maintain his fitness.
This was Hayman's 15th Paris-Roubaix and he has finished in the top 10 twice, but his lack of preparation meant on Sunday he was a rank outsider.
While Hayman raised his arms in triumph at the finish line, he said his emotions immediately afterwards were pure disbelief.
"I guess the stars aligned today and everything came together - all the years of experience and the times I've been close or thereabouts," he told AAP.
"I'm not sure myself how I pulled it off ... I played it pretty calm in the final and I was prepared to lose."
Hayman won the final sprint at the Roubaix velodrome ahead of Belgian legend Tom Boonen, who was aiming for a record fifth title in the race.
"Even in the last kilometre, coming into the velodrome, I'm thinking 'yeah, first or second with Tom Boonen, that's not too bad, it's a good day out'," he said.
"To actually pull it off, somewhere there was me still fighting for every inch."
Hayman made the day's key break, 75km into the iconic 257.5km race that features more than 50km of brutal cobbled sections.
The race came down to Hayman, Boonen, Great Britain's Ian Stannard, Belgian Sep Vanmarcke and Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen.
Hayman's chances appeared shot when he tangled with Stannard on a cobbled section and nearly crashed inside the last 20km, briefly losing touch with the leaders.
"I was pretty low then, but I managed to claw my way back," he said of being dropped.
"When I got back, I realised no-one had fresh legs anymore."
Boonen was genuinely happy for Hayman afterwards, reflecting the esteem with which the Australian is held in the sport.
Incredibly, this was only Hayman's third professional win, following the 2006 Commonwealth Games road title and Paris-Bourges five years ago.
Heinrich Haussler's sixth place meant this was also the first time that two Australians had made the top 10 at Paris-Roubaix.
Share
