At first, there was a grimace on British champion Pfeiffer Georgi's face as she recovered from her efforts at Paris-Roubaix Femmes on the infield at the Vélodrome André-Petrieux in Roubaix.
Georgi had seemingly just sprinted to fourth place, narrowly missing the podium and another big step forward for the 23-year-old as Marianne Vos appeared to be ahead in the sprint for the line.
Her eyes were fixed on the big screens dotted around the velodrome however, and as a soigneur wiped her face clean of the dust accumulated on a day on the cobbles, her frown turned to joy as she saw the final confirmed result flash up – third place: Pfeiffer Georgi.
The photo finish showed that she had beaten Vos after all, her late surge yielding dividends. That meant later Georgi took to the podium alongside race winner Lotte Kopecky and runner-up Elisa Balsamo, with her dsm-firmenich PostNL teammates gathered together to celebrate with her.
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"When I crossed the line, I wasn't sure if I was fourth or third so I was really hoping I'd got on the podium," Georgi recalled later in the podium placer's press conference.
"When it came up on the screen I was pretty emotional because for me it feels like a win. I think it's a monumental race and a dream race of mine to win and a big goal for the year was to get on the podium, so it really means a lot."
There have been no big wins for Georgi yet in 2024 – last season she triumphed at the Classic Brugge-De Panne, but it still feels like a spring of progress for the dsm leader, with a podium at the biggest, toughest race of Classics season to go with a third place at the Omloop van het Hageland, a top 10 at Ronde van Drenthe, and fifth at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda.
It was a battling display from Georgi, who made the cut at the front when Kopecky accelerated on the four-star Camphin-en-Pévèle sector some 20km from the line.
Best reaction ever 🥰🤩 @pfeiffergeorgi congrats for the podium #ParisRoubaixFemmes #LesRP pic.twitter.com/ynX0x6fN8nApril 6, 2024
She soon found herself just off the rear of the lead five-woman group, however, but didn't give up the chase, fighting on alone over the Carrefour de l'Arbre and picking up a dropped Balsamo before the pair made it back across with 12km to race.
Such displays of tenacity aren't rare at a race like Paris-Roubaix, and there was more to come as she sprinted with the best of them on the velodrome. She'd kick off the dash to the line on the back straight and then find a second wind coming off the final bend to power past Vos and come through for that all-important third place.
"I think I believed that coming into this race I belonged in that top group," Georgi said later. "So I had confidence coming in, but it's obviously nice to have the confirmation and reassurance that I am at that level.
"I think this result shows what I believe I have the potential to do this spring, but I had a bit of bad luck. I think it's really nice to carry forward for the rest of this year and also again next year when I hope to make another step up."
Georgi said that she could feel the pressure as she raced into the velodrome in a group alongside the legendary Vos, former world champion Balsamo, and the number one rider of 2024, Kopecky.
"It's a rare opportunity that you find yourself in the situation at Roubaix," said the rider who has finished twice in the top 10, albeit not among the lead group
"Everything has to go right all day, with luck and legs coming in so I didn't want to mess it up. I've done quite a lot of track racing in the past, so I was really trying not to get boxed in and I had to go early because they were coming.
"It was going to be a tough challenge to beat them in the sprint. At the end of Roubaix, anything can happen, and I just did a big lunge at the end to get on the podium.
Georgi said one of the factors that made a difference for this year's race that there wasn't one team who was completely dominant which made the race more open and delivered the confidence to aim for a top result
"Tactics-wise the race started and stopped a bit. I think everyone looked at each other a bit which meant that there was a big group coming into the last few sectors," she said. "But it still came down to a small group at the finish."
With 17 savage cobbled sectors filling out the 149km route, there's no doubt that Paris-Roubaix is among the most brutal and challenging races on the calendar. Indeed, the race has been such a challenge in the past that Georgi had originally doubted whether it was for her. But there's been progress year after year, culminating in this podium spot, and now she's relishing the pave, ready to return, and taking aim at the victor's cobblestone trophy.
"The first edition was crazy for me," Georgi said of her debut at the race – 58th place – in 2021. "I had lots of crashes and bad luck, so I maybe wrote it off ...
"Then I came back and had some solid results with two top 10s so, then I started to get more of a bit of a love relationship with it. And now I definitely think it's my dream race to win so I'm going to keep coming back and fighting for that."
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