Alison Jackson won a nail-biting Paris Roubaix Femmes yesterday, converting from the morning breakaway.
The 34-year-old Canadian took the French classic, out-sprinting a group of six.
Katia Ragusa of Liv Racing finished second, with Fenix-Deceuninck’s Marthe Truyen in third.
The day however belonged to the Canadian, who proved that she was the strongest of the initial breakaway.
Jackson said: “I dreamed of winning, it’s unreal to have done it in real life.”
The big news before the race started concerned Audrey Cordon-Ragot’s return to racing, after moving to Human Powered Health from Zaaf two days before the event.
A breakaway of eighteen riders formed off the front and quickly opened a gap of over five minutes.
The likes of Lisa Klein (Trek-Segafredo), Alison Jackson (EF Education TIBCO) and British champion Alice Towers (Canyon-Sram) found themselves up the road.
Despite having Klein in the lead group, Trek Segafredo were doing most of the chasing in the peloton.
With 70 kilometres to go, Daniek Hengeveld (Team DSM) ventured off the front of the breakaway, starting a solo mission to Roubaix.
Meanwhile, a puncture for Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) meant the Dutch favourite saw her hopes start to disappear, compounded when Trek sent Elisa Balsamo to the front of the peloton to raise the pace.
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) attacked out of the peloton with 50 kilometres left; a crash involving Elynor Backstedt (Trek-Segafredo) and Shari Bossuyt (Canyon-Sram) saw an elite group form.
Elisa Longo Borghini and Lucinda Brand of Trek were in the favourites selection, along with Pfeiffer Georgi of DSM and Elise Chabbey (Canyon-Sram). Meanwhile Alison Jackson completed the catch of Hengeveld in the lead of the race.
Midway through the seventh cobble sector, Longo Borghini’s back wheel lost grip, taking out all of the chase group apart from Romy Kasper (AG Insurance).
They recovered the gap to Kasper entering Carrefour de L’Arbre, the gap to the front under a minute.
Surges from Kopecky, Chabbey, and Georgi were neutralised, but the gap to the early breakaway was reduced to ten seconds into the final ten kilometres.
Towers and Hengeveld dropped from the break in an attempt to help Chabbey and Georgi respectively, but the seven riders in the lead continued to dangle at just over ten seconds clear of the chase.
The co-operation in both groups remained steady, as the breakaway held the gap into the velodrome.
Marion Borras (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93), Euginie Duval (FDJ SUEZ), Alison Jackson, Marta Lach (Ceratizit WNT), Femke Markus (SD Worx), Katia Ragusa and Marthe Truyen seemed to have enough of a gap to contest for victory.
Lach led the seven-woman group through the bell and continued to softly pace on the front until the back straight.
Behind the Polish rider, Markus tried to slip up the inside of Jackson through the penultimate turn but touched handlebars with the ex-Canadian champion. The Dutch rider lost her balance and fell out of contention.
Borras was the first to launch her sprint from the rear of the sextet, but Jackson held her nerve and thrashed past the track specialist to claim an incredible victory.
The Canadian said: "I trusted in myself and in my passion and heart for wanting to get in the bike race, and I turned out with the win"
"To cross the finish line first of any bike race is a special type of fun. This one tops that."