"The cobbles, the stress on the body, it’s definitely one of the roughest, toughest, hardest races I’ve done. I think I gained some experience that maybe next time that I come here it will not be so extremely hard as it was today."
Almost 365 days ago, that was Tadej Pogačar's verdict after his debut Paris-Roubaix, where he finished second, looking as exhausted as I have ever seen him after a race. It wasn't the buoyant, jokey man we have all become used to, but someone who had been put through the wringer.
