Mathew Hayman shows nice guys can finish first after stirring win in Paris-Roubaix

MATHEW Hayman’s Paris-Roubaix triumph will be treasured by Australian cycling as much as Cadel Evans winning the Tour de France.

Australia's Mathew Hayman (R) celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead of Belgium's Tom Boonen (L), Great Britain's Ian Stannard (3rdL), and Belgium's Sep Vanmarcke (2ndL) at the end of the 114th edition of the Paris-Roubaix one-day classic cycling race, between Compiegne and Roubaix, on April 10, 2016, in Roubaix, northern France. AFP PHOTO / FRANCOIS LO PRESTI

MATHEW Hayman’s Paris-Roubaix triumph will be treasured by Australian cycling as much as Cadel Evans winning the Tour de France.

It didn’t take him three weeks to win it but rather 15 long, painful and at times heartbreaking years.

It will be treasured because of the sheer fairytale of it all, which prompted one Orica-GreenEDGE team official to declare on Sunday night that there is a cycling god after all.

After all the muck the sport has dragged itself through in the past five years there has also been plenty of good — and the story of a 37-year-old Australian refusing to give up on a childhood dream and winning the 257km “monument” is one of the best.

It should and will restore people’s faith in what is a beautiful sport and prove that nice guys do sometimes finish first.

Not that Fabian Cancellara, Peter Sagan or Tom Boonen wouldn’t have been fitting winners, but to see the shock and disbelief on Hayman’s face when he crossed the line in the concrete velodrome in Roubaix on Sunday night was a goosebump moment that will stay with cycling fans all over the world forever.

In the most respectful way possible, Hayman is a worker not a winner.

He had not won a professional race since 2011, albeit it he did win the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medal, yet here he was on the podium holding up the giant cobble which doubles as the Paris-Roubaix trophy.

For Australians, it should not be overlooked that former national champion Heinrich Haussler also finished sixth, giving the nation two riders in the top 10.

And furthermore, Luke Durbridge was 18th and Zak Dempster 24th making it four in the top 25 which is equally as incredible.

But the day belonged to Hayman, who joined Stuart O’Grady as the only Australian winners in Paris-Roubaix’s 114-year history. Fittingly, O’Grady was there to see the win and said ‘it was the greatest race I have ever witnessed’.

“I still can’t believe it,” Hayman said after the race.

“If someone had told me this morning I’d win Paris-Roubaix I wouldn’t have believed them, no way.

Mathew Hayman of Orica-GreenEDGE charges toward victory in the 2016 Paris-Roubaix. Picture: Bryn Lennon (Getty Images)

“I’ve had enough bad luck in Paris-Roubaix in the last 15 years, everything went right today ... this race is huge for me, if you speak to anyone at Orica-GreenEDGE they know that this is the one race that is really special to me.”

There are so many layers to what makes Hayman’s triumph so special:

THAT he is in his 17th year as a professional, he turns 38 in eight days’ time and was likely to retire at the end of the season. That may now change.

Just five weeks ago he broke his arm in a race crash which doctors said would end his Spring Classics campaign because he would be forced off his road bike or a month.

But you can’t keep a good man down, and twice a day, every day for a month Hayman got on his home trainer and pedalled a stationary bike to keep the dream alive.

THAT he had been here 14 times before — finishing 76th, 41st, 52nd, 8th, 10th, 24th, 20th, 113th, 23rd, 78th, 26th, 49th, 65th and the time in 2002 when he was outside the time cut but refused to quit.

THAT Hayman is a workhorse. A selfless domestique who sacrifices himself for his teammates 99 per cent of the races he starts and is really only the leader for one day of the year.

THAT he is a hugely respected character in the peloton. You will be hard pressed to find a more quiet, modest and deserving champion, who in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s race suggested he was “lucky”.

The only luck he had on the weekend was not to puncture or crash. The win itself was built on guts and a gritty determination — the same determination that saw him finally make his Tour de France debut after a 15-year wait in 2014.

Hayman’s win is yet another chapter in Orica-GreenEDGE’s short but staggering history.

In just five years the Australian team has led all three Grand Tours and won three monuments — Simon Gerrans in Milan-San Remo (2012) and Liege-Bastogne-Liege (2014) and now Hayman in Paris-Roubaix.

It is an incredible record.

Since joining Orica-GreenEDGE in 2014, Hayman’s role as road captain has been invaluable. Last year rising star Caleb Ewan was asked which two riders on the team had had the most influence on him in his first year.

Ewan said Simon Gerrans, a prolific winner and superstar of the sport — and Hayman the softly-spoken Canberran who he regularly roomed with at races and had a calming affect on his preparation.

For years Hayman has been known as a wise old head in the peloton, a worker, a captain and a leader.

Now he is undoubtedly a champion as well after conquering the Hell of the North.

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Originally published as Mathew Hayman shows nice guys can finish first after stirring win in Paris-Roubaix