His wait for a first career victory in a Monument Classic must continue, but Peter Sagan showed more evidence he is right to be considered alongside Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen as among the pre-race favourites. A top-ten finish marks his best result at Paris-Roubaix – having skipped the last two editions after a disappointing debut. The Slovakian has been in awesome form this season, but ends the cobbled Classics season with just E3 Harelbeke to his name.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful for Sagan who now turns his attention to the Tour de France where he is favourite to take a third consecutive green jersey – only six-time winner Erik Zabel has topped the points classification on more than two consecutive occasions. His one-day ambitions must wait, with the Giro di Lombardia in October likely to be his next Monument – Moreno Moser taking over leadership duties for Liege-Bastogne-Liege. But at 24, if Sagan can continue his rapid rise it will not be too long before he finally adds one of cycling’s top one-day prizes to his palmares.