Geraint Thomas and Frederik Nolf are the men to beat today. Thomas was 8th in yesterday's elite race, while Nolf was 21st. Another name to look out for was 24th in it, Jerome Baugnies. It is the same route as the elite course, from Compiegne to the Roubaix Velodrome.
The 3 man breakaway was Robert (Gatorade), Ratiy (Erste) and Guay (France)
Once the cobbles began, Guay pulled away from the other 3.
When the peleton was split into 3 with 110km to go, U23 World Champion Edvald Boasson Hagen was left in the 2nd group.
Geraint Thomas took a relay at the front as the peleton went through the Arenberg Forest (Invisible trees nowadays)
With 78km to go, Timothy Vangheel attacked
After 13km he had reached Guay, ending Guay's 170km+ breakaway
Vangheel continued ahead of the peleton at no more than a minutes lead for a while, before Geraint Thomas attacked with 41km to go
Nolf, van der Velde and Baugnies were quick to respond
Nolf made the strongest of the attacks
And he caught up with Vangheel
Nolf did not press on though, and he was caught by a chasing group of 9
Thomas, Drucker, Vanspeybrouck, Pluchkin, Gaudin, Offredo, van Heerden, Baugnies and Blythe.
Damien Gaudin had not attacked the first time and made use of teammates to make sure his plan worked. He then attacked with 31km to go
Only Geraint Thomas could respond, and the Brit caught up with Gaudin
Van Heerden dropped off the chase group while Offredo was not going to help chase. The riders will have to work together to caught Gaudin and Thomas
The leading pair pulled out a minute's lead before Geraint Thomas dropped Gaudin
The chasing group dropped first Pluchkin and then Blythe yet still could not make any inroads
Geraint Thomas entered the velodrome in front
Gaudin also looks set for 2nd, while Nolf is looking to take 3rd. Offredo has been dropped and Nolf is trying to distance the others as the sprint begins
Geraint Thomas wins the Under 23 Paris-Roubaix!
Damien Gaudin takes 2nd
Frederik Nolf sprinted to a comfortable 3rd in the end, but will be disappointed nevertheless
