Paris Roubaix Juniors 2014 Race Report

Young Danish rider Magnus Bak Klaris have won Paris Roubaix 2014 juniors after impressive solo attack in the closing kilometers. After sprint from a small bunch, another Dane Casper Pedersen took second with Enzo Wouters from Belgium finished third.

Foto: Yves Logghe/AP/POLFOTO

Juniors had to go through sixteen sectors of cobbles, the same that were run by elite. The peleton were already shattered at the first sector Hornaing with more then fourty riders left behind the main group. The bunch was led by British team hoping for good result from KBK 2014 winner James Shaw but their leader was pretty unlucky today with 3 punctures and a crash that ended up with abandoning.

With more cobbles on the route the group was shrinking even more. Around 50km to go we had no more than fifty riders at the front. At the sector Cysoning Filippo Ganna from Italy decided to go solo and gain around 10" advantage on the peleton. Five kilometers later ha managed to increase the gap up to 30 seconds.

After the last important cobble sector, La Carrefour de l'Abre, Ganna was cought and we had ten riders in front. Both Pedersen and Klaris were attacking one by one and finally Klaris went away and had around 15" advantage on the group behind.  He reached the velodrome in Roubaix with just few seconds ahead of the group led by France and Belgium but he managed to stay away and won "Hell of the North". It was third win in a row for Denmark with Mads Pedersen winning in 2013 and Mads Schmitz Wurtz in 2012.

Magnus Bak Klaris weights only 58kg and is build more like a climber then a classic specialist (or maybe i should say like Cavendish or Ewan). After being second on Danish ITT juniors last year and fifth in Omloop der Vlaamse Gewesten it's another great ride by Magnus. Last year, Mads Pedersen started his impressive streak of great results at Paris Roubaix. Lets see what Klaris will be able to achieve this season.

Also i should say it was quite impressive for French team having frou guys in the finale. Too bad they ended up without even podium with Damien Touze once again being close to win (fourth last year, fifth this time).

Results:

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