De Bondt followed route for motorbikes and loses top 10 spot, Kristoff went in the wrong direction after crash on head

De Bondt was on his way to a top-ten finish in Paris-Roubaix in the final kilometers. He had jumped away from a group of chasers and was heading for the velodrome. But that's where things went wrong. "As I turned onto that last cobbled section, under the red flag, I followed the motorbike in front of me," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "Unfortunately, he took a detour, and so did I." So, there was no top 10 finish for the Belgian rider.

"How can something like this happen? This was only my third Roubaix," he explains. "Last year, I gave up; in 2018, my teammate Michael Goolaerts died during the race, so I was distracted. On top of that, we never take that last cobblestone section during the recon. We turn onto the velodrome from the road. Now, I had to go right, left, and right again. I misjudged it, arrived at high speed, and ended up right on the back of that motorbike."

De Bondt was not the only one who rode incorrectly. "Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ, ed.) was about thirty meters behind me and followed me. He had realized something was up a little earlier and turned back faster. I saw that I was losing several places because a small group was just behind us. Disappointed? Not really, at first, partly because Stefan (Bissegger, ed.) finished seventh, which meant we had achieved the team's goal."

Initially, De Bondt could laugh about it. "But when I was still chatting with Jasper Philipsen in the center square, I heard them call out the top ten and my jaw dropped. From whose group I broke away, Fred Wright was ninth. I didn't know that I was riding for ninth place. I realized we were in it for a place of honor when we picked up Philipsen. And then this! Stupid, right? Luckily, there is no footage of it."

Even afterward, the 33-year-old Belgian can laugh about it. "But that was frustrating. I wanted to prove that I could finish in the top ten in a Monument. I had heard too often that I was a good rider and had achieved good results but that I was just a little short for the really big races. I don't get many chances to finish in the top ten in a big race, so this one has left a sour aftertaste."

Two riders managed to take advantage of the Belgian and Swiss' ignorance. This left two spots in the top ten, which were claimed by Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty, 10th, ed.) and Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious, 9th, ed.). He saw the incident happen and took full advantage. "The two guys on the front [of his group] – two idiots – didn't realize you had to turn right into the velodrome; they just went off left, and that was them out of the picture," he told Cycling Weekly.

Besides De Bondt and Jacobs, someone else went in the wrong direction. Alexander Kristoff was involved in a crash earlier in the race, which had serious consequences. "I landed on my head in a crash," he said on his team's social media. "I have a bit of a headache now. But I got up and started riding in the wrong direction, so maybe I have a concussion. I was a bit confused and didn't know which way to go. I got on my bike, started riding, and suddenly saw riders coming towards me."

The veteran of Uno-X Mobility realized he was unable to continue. "I had to give up fairly quickly. I didn't have much strength in my right leg because I had hurt my knee. It started to feel better after a kilometer, but by then, I was so far behind the race that it didn't make sense to continue.' That was particularly disappointing because he now has a DNF (did not finish) behind his name in his (probably) last Monument.

"I had hoped not to finish in the car, so I am a bit disappointed," the 37-year-old Norwegian realizes. "I did not feel bad on the cobblestones; our equipment was also very good. It moved along fine, so I was able to move further forward. Our position was good, and I was up there with many teammates. But we lost Rasmus (Tiller, ed.) and me in this crash, which was a shame." Does he have to continue for another year to be able to enter the velodrome? "I'm not so tempted to do it again," he laughs.