Terpstra has knowhow to upset Sagan on feared cobbled stage

Eurosport 1/ITV4, 11.35am Sunday

Brutal, crazy, random. Just three of the descriptions used by riders for Sunday’s feared stage over the cobbles to Roubaix, the Tour’s most extreme encounter with the pavé in recent history.

Previous cobbled stages – in 2010, 2014 and 2015 – have brought trouble for top GC contenders such as Chris Froome and Alberto Contador, and it seems unlikely that all the favourites will escape unscathed from the 15 sections of pavé totalling 21.7km.

Stage victory is likely to go to a classics specialist. In the 2015 cobbled stage four of the first nine finishers had at least a top-six placing in the Paris-Roubaix on their palmares. In 2014, which was much tougher because it rained, five of the first seven had strong form from the Paris-Roubaix or Liege-Bastogne-Liege (at least a top-six finish), and in 2010 seven of the first ten had such form.

But some of the classics riders will be pressed into the service of their team leaders with GC hopes and this could come down to a battle between Peter Sagan, this year’s Paris-Roubaix winner, and the strong Quick-Step Floors squad.

Sagan could be outnumbered and a big threat is Quick-Step's Niki Terpstra, whose last five completions in Paris-Roubaix have been 5-3-1-0-3.

Saturday’s stage was relatively quiet until the final sprint, when Dylan Groenewegen exploded to the front again to record his second straight win. Andre Greipel and Fernando Gaviria followed him home but both were relegated after two separate head-butting incidents, with Peter Sagan and John Degenkolb moved up to second and third.

Recommendation
N Terpstra
1pt 8-1 bet365

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