Hayman wins sensational Paris-Roubaix in thrilling sprint finish

The sole survivor of the day's early breakaway, Orica-GreenEdge's Hayman beat Boonen of Etixx-QuickStep by a bike length in one of the tensest finishes in recent memory. 37-year-old Hayman became the third oldest winner of the ‘Hell of the North’ after completing the sixteenth Paris-Roubaix of a career largely spent in the service of others.

Despite a late surge around the final bend in the Roubaix velodrome, Team Sky's Stannard had to settle for third place ahead of a spent Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo) of Belgium. Norwegian national champion Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) completed the top five a further three seconds back for his best career finish in a Monument to date.

But there was heartbreak for Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) who crashed in mud in the key Mons-en-Pévèle cobbled sector 45 kilometres from the finish of the 257.5km race in northern France. Riding his final edition of the cobbled classic he has won three times, Cancellara was chasing down the select leading group alongside world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) when the incident happened.

Sagan somehow dodged his sprawling rival but was unable to bridge the gap to the Hayman group. Winner of last Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, the in-form Sagan came home in eleventh place, two minutes and 20 seconds down on the surprise, yet deserved, winner.

Making his first major classics appearance in over a month after coming back from injury, Hayman looked stunned and shocked as he dismounted his bike in the centre circle of the velodrome.

“I can’t believe it. I broke my arm five weeks ago and I missed all the racing before,” a tearful Hayman later said, his face caked in mud. “This is my favourite race – the race I always dreamed of winning. I made the breakaway and I only went once so I saved my legs there.”

Hayman, whose previous best finish in Paris-Roubaix was eighth in 2012, was the only rider in the leading quintet who had featured in the day’s main break, which formed with 185km left to race and before the first of 27 gruelling cobbled sectors.

The sixteen-man break built up a maximum lead of three minutes as the race split apart behind them thanks to some blustery crosswinds in the Somme region of northern France. Cancellara and Sagan were the big-name riders who were left reeling when Germany’s Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) upped the tempo after echelons formed in the wind with 115km remaining.

Although Etixx had some key riders caught out in the main pack – including Zdenek Styber and the 2014 champion Niki Terpstra – Martin set a fast tempo for team leader Boonen after it became apparent that the two favourites had been distanced.

While Etixx looked to have put all their eggs in Boonen’s basket as the Belgian veteran eyed a fifth Roubaix win that would set him above all others in the record books, Team Sky and LottoNL-Jumbo were also heavily represented in the main chasing group, which had slashed the lead of the Hayman break to 1:30 at the iconic Arenberg Forest section of cobbles – the first of three five-star sections.

The Boonen group – which included Sky trio Stannard, Luke Rowe and Gianni Moscon, as well as Vanmarcke and four of his LottoNL-Jumbo team-mates – closed in on the break, with the Sagan chasing group riding a further mintute back.

Hayman once rode clear of his fellow escapees – in the four-star cobbled sector at Hornaing with 80km remaining – but soon decided to preserve his energy and rejoin his fellow escapees, who were caught by the chasing group inside the final 65km.

With Team Sky coming to the front of the race, a flurry of crashes caused havoc and changed the dynamic of the race. When Moscon slipped in the mud in the four-star sector 11 at Auchy-lez-Orchies – Bersée, Stannard was able to avoid hitting the deck but Rowe went over the handlebars.

Moments later, Salvatore Puccio – Sky’s representative in the early break alongside Hayman – also came a cropper, overcooking a bend in the five-star Mons-en-Pévèle section and falling heavily. Once again Stannard managed to avoid a falling team-mate – although his silky bike-handling skills were to be outdone by Sagan moments later when the rainbow jersey bunny-hopped over Cancellara’s Trek bike after the Swiss powerhouse had uncharacteristically lost his footing in a muddy ditch while leading the chase.

Muddied and bruised, Cancellara remounted but the dream of matching Boonen and Roger De Vlaeminck's shared record of four Roubaix triumphs was out of reach. Sagan still fancied his chances, though, and the Slovakian tyro fought back with a small group of riders. Although they closed the gap to 45 seconds at one point, the strength of the leading group – which had now been whittled down to 10 riders, including a recovered Rowe – was too strong.

Rowe and Stannard drove the pace of the leaders, Sky for the first time in their history looking as if they had a realistic chance of winning a Monument. Stannard halved the size of the leading group after a dig on the Camphin-en-Pévèl sector before Vanmarcke dropped the hammer in the final five-star sector at the Carrefour de l’Arbre with 16km remaining.

Runner up in 2013 and third last week at Flanders, Vanmarcke powered clear on the coarse cobbles to open a 10-second gap over his rivals. Boasson Hagen led the chase with former Sky team-mate Stannard, with Boonen and Hayman latching on. The race came back together with the five riders entering the final 10km together, as IAM Cycling duo Heinrich Haussler and Aleksejs Saramotins led the chase with Spain’s Imanol Erviti (Movistar) and German Marcel Seiberg (Lotto Soudal). Rowe had by now dropped back following his earlier crash.

Vanmarcke, Boasson Hagan and Stannard all put in long-range efforts to no avail before Boonen went clear in pursuit of history with 3.5km remaining. Stannard countered, Boonen rallied, and then Hayman outdid them both, soaring clear ahead of the final cobbled section.

When Boonen matched his rival we looked to have a two-man finale on our hands between the two experienced veterans: one with almost more career wins to his name than the other had had hot dinners. But as they entered the velodrome at Roubaix Vanmarcke mustered the strength to join the leaders. The pace then slowed on the final lap to allow a returning Stannard the chance of becoming the first British winner of this monumental race.

But Hayman – following in the tyre tracks of compatriot Stuart O'Grady, the only previous Australian winner in Paris-Roubaix back in 2007 – had the final say to hold off both Stannard and home favourite Boonen to cause a huge upset.

It may have not been the result the home fans were hoping for but it was a true fairy tale finish if ever there was one: the grizzled, unheralded journeyman beating one of the most feted cobbled riders in the business to net the biggest win of his career at the sixteenth attempt.

Chapeau Mat Hayman, the last man standing of an exhilarating Paris-Roubaix.