Greig Leach

Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) had crashed out of the chasing group up ahead and was making little progress towards rejoining his teammate ahead. That was until Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) came up from the next group back on the road. It may not have been wise for Vermeersch to tow Pithie up to the chasing group since that would bring another Groupama-FDJ rider to help the chase of his own team leader. However, by now, Mathieu Van Der Poel was three minutes up the road with little chance of anyone seeing am until the fable showers under the Roubaix Velodrome.