Luke Rowe summed up his racing in the series of classics as "close, but no cigar" after a crash ruled him out of challenging for the renowned Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.
The Welshman went into his "favourite race" as joint Team Sky leader, as he looked to better his impressive fifth placed finish in the Tour of Flanders the week before on the cobbled roads to Robaix.
Rowe suffers unfortunate series of events
The closing stages of the race, however, were unkind to Rowe - who has had an admirable classics campaign this season - as he was caught up in a crash before suffering a puncture to rule out his chances of contesting the victory.
Despite having finished a "pretty disappointing" 14th position in the Roubaix velodrome, two minutes behind eventual race winner, Mat Hayman. Rowe believes he has had a "promising" campaign in comparison to previous years.
"Close but no cigar kind of sums up the campaign," the sky rider said when interviewed at the end of the race. Rowe has closely challenged in many of the classics this year but failed to finish on a podium in any, as he believes he "hadn't reached the top".
Stannard equals best ever British record in the Paris-Robaix
The 26-year-old was one of five Sky riders in the lead group on the cobbles when he crashed. He managed to catch up to teammate, Ian Stannard ,before dropping back out of the lead group with an unfortunate puncture. Stannard eventually finished third, equalling the best ever British finish at the cobbled classic.
Despite the race only just finishing, Rowe took confidence from his performance and spoke of his target of "giving it a good go next year and perhaps winning it".