Matej Moholic looked to add a Milan-San Remo victory to his Paris-Roubaix win during Sunday's race, riding 80km with a lead group and a long solo breakaway. However, he suffered a puncture with 38km to go.

He attacked 10 km later, just before the seventh sector sizing, and rejoined the lead group. This group included Tom Devlint (Intermarque Wanty-Gobert Materio), Yves Lampert (Quick Step-Alphavinil), and eventual winner Dylan Van Baarle (Ineos Grenadier), who were in the original group. Van Baarle then pushed alone in Camphine-en-Peverre, and Mohoric had to chase him down, crossing the finish line in fifth place, 1:47 behind.

"I was pretty lucky in the chaos," said Mohoric. Being in the breakaway group was a big advantage for me."

However, a small leading group of riders who continued to ride alone put a strain on the Milano-Sanremo winner.

"I wasted a lot of energy," he said. I had a puncture, even though I was riding tubeless."

Mohoretz, riding alone with around 50km to go, immediately became one of the favorites to win. He said, "I believed in him until the puncture, and I believed in him after the puncture.

Mohorec then worked with Devlint to chase down the leading three. He said, "I worked well with Wanty and did my best in the final.

At the finish on the Roubaix Velodrome, Mohoric remained optimistic that his tactics at the front might have given Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) a chance to catch up and fight for the podium.

"I was hoping that if Küng and Van Aert would have waited for the last minute, a fast kick might have given them an advantage, but it didn't happen. But it didn't. It was a really honest finish," Mohoric said. [I wanted a podium, but this is reality. I'm proud of my race. I also thought about Sonny [Colbrelli] all day. It's a shame he's not here today, but I hope he comes back in the future

"This is racing and I think it was a great race and a great show for the fans. Hopefully we can win next year."

Last year, Colbrelli won his first-ever Hell of the North, holding off Florian Vermersch (Lotto Soudal) and Mathieu Van Der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) in a mud-filled, epic three-way sprint battle. This year, Colbrelli watched the race from his home in Italy as he recovered from a near-fatal cardiac arrest in Catalunya Volta.

Mohoric's aggressive tactics were also strategic in avoiding confusion and crashes at the back of the race.

"It's still a good way to avoid confusion and crashes in the race. In the lead pack, the risk of crashing is a little less." There are still other important places to go this year. So I've been thinking about this a little bit as well."

"Overall I think it was good. We were lucky, but not as lucky as Sonny was last year."