WATCH: Italian Cyclist Crashes While Leading Race During Paris-Roubaix 2021

The Paris-Roubaix 2021 is a one-day race that starts from northern France and ends in Roubaix. Notably, the rankings of the race contribute in calculations to the UCI Cycling championships.

The competition started on October 3rd as many cyclists braced themselves for hours of anguish, in their quest for topmost glory. Significantly, this was the first wet edition of the race in two decades, as rain poured down for the first time in 19 years.

Wet conditions mean a lot of thrills and spills. Notably, Gianni Moscon, who was then leading the race, slipped during a curve.

Gianni Moscon fails to win the Paris-Roubaix 2021

In what would have been an incredible victory, Moscon’s race did not go as planned. The cyclist suffered a rear wheel puncture after Templeuve while falling down on the road. However, he quickly got up and changed his cycle as he lost only 20 seconds. But another crash with just 25 kilometers to go ended his hopes of winning a solo title.

Post the race, the cyclist expressed his desire to win the competition but failed to do so. He spoke about the problems he faced during the race.

“The tyre pressure was different. After five hours of racing maybe the pressure had gone down and, as soon as I went on this bike, I felt different on the pavé. Maybe it was because of that that I crashed, but the sector was really slippery,” said Moscon.

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A great comeback after a long time

Although he was not the favorite to win the race, it was a good comeback from the double national time trial champion. Earlier, he had top-five finishes at Paris-Roubaix. However, his career never took off, with a lot of controversies coming into play. The cyclist infamously got disqualified from the Tour de France and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne as he punched and threw his bike on fellow riders.

In the meantime, Moscon spoke about being disappointed in not being able to finish the race well.

“I crashed, but I didn’t lose too much time. But then they came back from behind and I didn’t have the legs to follow them. I tried. Fourth place–we will try again next year,” said Moscon.

Eventually, Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), and Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Soudal) finished the race on the podium. Undoubtedly, it was a sensational race, one to remember for ages.

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