April 16, 2007 – Guillaume Boivin (EVA/Devinci) demonstrated outstanding mental strength during the junior Paris-Roubaix 2007 race on Sunday.

Despite numerous mishaps, Boivin finished the 124 km race in 31st position, 6:25 behind winner Fabien Taillefer (E.S Livarot) of France who won the race with a time of 3:09:30. Belgian Jens Debusschere (Balen Bicycle Club) finished second while Italian Paolo Locatelli (Milram) came in third. Boivin raced Sunday wearing the colours of Belgian team Prédictor-Lotto VC Ardennes.

At the start, Boivin’s gear levers broke and he lost a lot of time changing his bike and then had to ride the race on a bike that was not set up for him. Boivin succeeded in catching the front of the pack, and put himself in fifth position, but then had a flat riding on the first cobblestone section at a time when his support vehicle was one kilometre back. After the flat was repaired, Boivin had a second flat 100 metres down the road. Lotto’s coach, Marc Sergeant, claimed that without these problems, Boivin would likely have been able to finish in the top ten.

Taillefer also had to change bikes as he also flatted on the cobblestones, and had a fall at Carrefour de l’arbre according to Velomania.net.

Paris-Roubaix was the first junior UCI race of the year with 182 riders from 12 countries and 32 teams participating. Boivin will be back in Canada around April 29 to rejoin EVA/Devinci. The 17-year-old lives in Longueuil, Quebec.