Blurred vision, flat tyres, and a collision with a spectator – Laurence Pithie sees dream scenario turn to nightmare at Paris-Roubaix

New Zealander Laurence Pithie of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe pictured during the men's Paris-Roubaix cycling race.

For a short while, Laurence Pithie dared to dream. “It was all going perfectly,” he recalls. Too perfectly.

Paris-Roubaix is a race that can flip in an instant, and the New Zealander could barely believe the punishment he would go on to receive from the fates of the Hell of the North.