Sean Yates on the 1984 edition of Paris Roubaix!

That was the only race I raced for myself. I think the previous year, I had been moving up, and I came in eighth. The year before that I was eleventh. I realized it was a good race for me. And I could do well, you know? That day was particularly rough as you can see from the picture. It was freezing from the start and snowing. I liked those conditions in those days. When it is really wet, there is probably a maximum of ten guys that can ride the cobbles. I remember one section when I dropped back a little bit, I was like 15th or so, guys were crashing and going left, right and center. Some guys would hit the Pavé and give it everything.

1994 Paris-Roubaix. Sean Yates always raced strongly through the cobbled hell of Paris Roubaix. In the rain battered ’94 edition, the Motorola man ended up in fifth place.

When you are drafting there is not so much advantage, so everyone was really suffering. You can’t afford to be outside the top five because when you hit each section, you waste so much energy. We came to about 40 kilometers to go and these motorbikes crashed in front on us. And there was complete chaos. And I said: I am just going to go as hard as I can from here to the finish. And on that same section Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and Franco Ballerini - they both punched it. Andrei Tchmil was away and Johan Museeuw tried to get across to him and within twenty meters he couldn’t. And I came flying past them. Fabio Baldato bridged up to me. I was going as fast as I could and I was puking up.

We hit the Carrefour de l'Arbre, which is the second to last hard section. And we caught Museeuw, and he was just blown. I dropped the others, and I was second on the road. And the crowds were going crazy. I was going hell for leather...as hard as I could. But they came back from behind: Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, Franco Ballerini and Olaf Ludwig. The last 5 kilometers to go and I knew that Andrei Tchmil was going to attack because he was so strong. But I just didn’t have the legs. And he attacked on that drag just before you start that long descent towards the velodrome. Baldato went with him. And I couldn’t. Baldato came second, Franco Ballerini third and then in the sprint Olaf Ludwig beat me. Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle was behind me. So, that was an epic day.