In the Roubaix Velodrome riders collapsed on the grass after surviving the Hell of the North, the joy of finishing Paris-Roubaix just about equalling the lactic acid and pain in their legs and battered bodies.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Mathieu van der Poel won alone and got to raise the cobblestone trophy but everyone who crossed the finish line had 'won' their own personal battle and could somehow savour a personal success.
