Massive day today both off and on the bike! Shout out to my beautiful girlfriend Jessica whose graduation ceremony took place today!

Not everyday you graduate and fair play on all the hard work and dedication put in to get there.

Would have absolutely loved to have been there with her to support her the same way she supports me in my career, but we thought today might have been a big day on the bike.

Honestly, would have loved to raise the arms today and dedicate the win to her…. close but no cigar as the man says.

200.4 kms Denain to Denain with 22.9kms of cobblestones across 13 sectors concentrated in the second half of the race for the 2025 Grand Prix de Henain - Porte du Hainaut "mini Paris-Roubaix".

Two five-star rated sectors (the highest difficulty level) because of their narrow, uneven surfaces and distance, and the return of historic stretches like Famars and Abscon.

Three Irishmen out for the win today, Sam (Bennett), Rory (Townsend) and myself to follow in the footsteps of the first winner of the race, another Irishman, the late Shay Elliot in 1959.

Rory (Townsend) was active early on in one of the breaks and Sam (Bennett) punctured after sector 4, so that was his day done.

Happy enough today but would have liked a bit more obviously. I think any of these races where you need to be placed well suits me: crosswinds, cobbles… doesn’t really matter.

Even if you’re not the strongest in the race, but you’re good at placement, you can do really well, and I was today. Had the legs as well to back it up, which is encouraging. I think there was Jérémy (Lecroq), Morné (Van Niekerk) and myself. The three of us were in great position.

Then Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team tried to split it and there was that big crash. I was lucky enough to have been well placed and made the split on the other side of it.

But ultimately I think that sector 3 was the decisive move with the little climb. Obviously the crash played a big part in the race and Sam (Bennett) punctured just after it which effectively took him out of the race.

Pity really because it would have been nice to ride in the break with him.

Tried out my new lake shoes today. Beautiful ride. Might just need to tweak a tiny bit, but lovely shoe. Well dusty after the day out!

Look, on this mixture of cobbles and surfaced roads, you either have the legs (and that bit of luck not to puncture at the wrong time) or you don’t. What was a real shame too was that Morné (Van Niekerk) had a puncture on sector 4, which effectively ended his day.

He’s going really well too at the moment with a machine-like ability to bridge gaps and jump between groups.

It would have been great to have him going into the final stages not as plan B but rather as two Plan As. We could have given it a right rattle.

13 sectors of cobbles in total with rankings of 5-star, 4-star, 3-star, 2-star or 1-star. Ye probably know the story with them: 5-star being the hardest.

Normally depends on the length of the sector and what shape the cobblestones are in because you can also get a shorter sector that has a higher star rating because the cobblestones are absolutely brutal.

I think the longest sector was about 3kms through a farm with a slight climb into it . Horrible, but I actually really liked it to be honest. Just didn’t go into that one particularly well with enough speed so ‘twas a real slog to get the gears going.

When you ride over cobblestones, the faster you go into them, the faster you’ll get over them. You’ll actually glide over them if you hit them with speed. If you go into them slow, it’s like you’re taking every little crevasse that’s there and you’re just in and out of the gaps using up a lot of energy needlessly.

Sectors 4, 3 and 2 were the hardest (the countdown goes in reverse with sector 1 being the final one before the finish). They're used in Paris-Roubaix. No joke.

So, depending on the cobbles you’re riding there’s always a line, and this line is normally right through the middle on the crest. Between cars, tractors and the rest, there is a normal breakdown of the surface on either side of the crest or centre, where the wheels rarely touch is the smoothest part.

Unless you find a gutter that is. Only problem with that though is you risk puncturing. A huge risk really with the usual run off of glass, stones, pebbles and so on. You can puncture anywhere, but the chances are much higher riding in the ditch.

That said, it’s faster. I took a lot of chances riding gutters, but there was also moments that I knew I had to just follow the line and ride the middle of the road and just stick with it.

But in the sector through the farm there was a fierce crosswind, and I was getting absolutely battered because I was one of the last into that sector. No radio communication cos DS car so far back, so I didn’t know what was coming up.

I could have just looked at my stem notes, but sometimes when you’re in the moment, it’s hard to just put the head down for a read. Maybe I rely a bit too much on the radio which is my own fault.

So it started to split and I jumped myself at around the same time that Aaron Gate (2015 & 2016 Rás Tailteann Green Jersey and 3-time stage winner) and Max Walscheid 2022 winner punctured, and zipped across to the move of 4 that had the in-form Matthew Brennan and Gianni Vermeersch in it, and I knew then that I had really good legs, really good.

I rode the gutter on the sector after that and thought I had punctured when I heard a pishstt, bounced on the bike three or four times, it was grand, wasn’t me! Thank God! That would have been race over.

Look I really really like the cobbles. Don’t think too many people say that. Probably don’t really like them at the time I’m doing them but they’re good fun. Good craic to ride.

Coming into the final kms attacks were flying, was feeling good, but just followed wheels and let them at it.

Then a small gap opened up about 500m from the line, went through it, probably overcooked the roundabout by about half a metre. Should I have waited for the sprint? Possibly.

Think that half-metre error on the final roundabout cost me a podium if not the win as I had lost momentum, and it kicked straight away as we came out the other side of it.

But, you know, I need to look back on it now and do a bit of homework on it... figure out where I was strong and try and take better advantage of those situations in the future.

A good day out overall and I’m looking forward to Cholet Agglo Tour on Sunday 23rd March 2025. Should be a good day out if I can bring my current form to it. Will keep ye posted.