Peter Sagan was a much more present force at Paris-Roubaix than he has been for much of the cobbled Classics, but the Bora-Hansgrohe rider said that he was missing the energy he needed to follow the late attacks. Nevertheless, Sagan was happy with how he rode, saying that he´d had a great race. In a similar place to where he launched his own solo attack last year, Sagan bridged across to the move that would ultimately decide the race with a little over 50 kilometres remaining. The defending champion looked strong as he led the group onto Mons-en-Pévèle and put in a few accelerations to test his rivals. Knowing that they couldn´t take Sagan to the line, his companions took turns to attack but Sagan seemed wise to it. However, he ran out of steam when Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) made his attack, followed by eventual winner Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) inside the final 15 kilometres. A podium still appeared to be in the offing, but he was eventually distanced by Yves Lampaert with the velodrome almost in sight.ADVERTISEMENT `It was good, it was just you know... I did a great race, but in the end, I missed some energy in the final. I did a lot before, and after I miss it,` Sagan said outside his team bus after taking a shower to clean the mud from his face. `In the end I was missing a little bit, maybe I did a bit too much work earlier on and the lacked a bit in the end. But it´s always very hard against two strong riders like Lampaert and Gilbert.` In the end, Sagan came to the velodrome with Sep Vanmarcke, who had caught up with him after suffering a mechanical problem. Sagan´s exhaustion was clear to see as he did not even react to Vanmarcke´s sprint for the line, rolling over to take fifth place - a strong result nevertheless. `I don´t know exactly what happened. In the end I was quite empty in the legs,` explained Sagan. `If I had a better day, it might have been different, but I did my best I´m happy with that.`
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