Steve Bauer: “That centimetre makes all the difference in the world”

March 26 ^th 2026 - 10:00

Winning the Queen of the Classics is a lifelong dream for every ‘flandrien’, Belgian or not, as well as for every cycling champion who looks up to Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France and its prestige. Yet the legend of the Hell of the North is defined by more riders than the 95 victors (90 men, 5 women) in its palmarès. There is a long list of first-class cyclists who have tried to conquer this race time and again, only to fall short by a mere, untimely flat - or by a wrong pull of the brakes. What kept Adrie van der Poel away from winning at the Velodrome where his younger son has triumphed for three consecutive years? What was missing for Juan Antonio Flecha, the Latino who has excelled the most in this race, to score a historic victory? Why hasn’t Marianne Vos brought a cobble home, she who has collected trophies all over the world? Are podium memories a dream or a nightmare for Zdenek Stybar, Steve Bauer or Lorena Wiebes? These are fascinating questions, and you’ll find the answers in this new six-part interview series, from now until April 12.

Steve Bauer: “That centimetre makes all the difference in the world”

Steve Bauer didn’t see how Paris-Roubaix escaped him. Truth be told, nor did Eddy Planckaert grasp how he snatched the 1990 edition of the Hell of the North from its Canadian suitor - both men threw their bikes across the line with eyes closed after a frantic sprint on the Velodrome. Ten minutes later, the officials announced the Belgian had won by the nearest margin, less than a centimetre. Immediately, it was dubbed the closest Paris-Roubaix ever, and it still lives by that reputation, even though Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle edged Franco Ballerini by a few centimetres in 1993. Surprises are always around the corner in the Hell of the North, and sometimes they’re good. But Bauer, although he remained a fierce contender on the cobbles, never found his opening. Three decades after hanging up his bike, he still chases success in Roubaix as sporting manager of NSN Cycling Team.

Born on 12 June 1959 in St. Catharines, Canada

Teams:

La Vie Claire (1985-1987) / Helvetia-La Suisse (1988-1989) / 7 Eleven, Motorola (1990-1995) / Saturn (1996)

Major victories:

Züri Metzgete 1988 / Stage 1 of the Tour de France 1988 (5 days with the Maillot Jaune that year, 9 in 1990) / 2 stages of the Critérium du Dauphiné / GP des Amériques 1988
Paris-Roubaix results:
1985: DNF / 1986: 29th / 1987: DNF / 1988: 8th / 1989: DNF / 1990: 2nd / 1991: 4th / 1992: 17th / 1993: 23rd / 1994: DNF / 1995: 17th

Distinctive feature:

Hailing from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Canada’s Steve Bauer knew he had to learn the heroics of Northern Classics. “The French called me ‘Le Canadien Bauer’”, he recalls with a smile. Rather than settling close to the Mediterranean Sea, he established base in Gullegem. There, he was at the heart of Flemish turf, taking on mighty cobbles and daunting weather conditions to harden his skills and character.

THE CLOSEST ROUBAIX EVER

Steve Bauer, Eddy Planckaert and Edwig Van Hooydonck had been battling for seven hours and a half when they came to the velodrome at the end of the 1990 Paris-Roubaix, a 265.5-km ordeal featuring over 55 km km of cobbled sectors. “Planckaert had been in front for a long time, and I was fortunate Laurent Fignon animated the race that day”, the Canadian recalls. “I played a lot more patient than I had maybe other years. I was following, watching… And at Cysoing, I attacked to bridge across, which at that point was well timed. We went to the Carrefour de l’Arbre and I believe at that point I was the strongest, but I couldn’t drop everybody. Inevitably, it came down to a sprint, with a couple of riders joining us on the velodrome.”
Belgium’s Jean-Marie Wampers, winner the year before, was up there, as well as France’s Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, whose crowning would come in 1992 and 1993. The race had been hair-raising all day long, with minimal gaps on the road, and it would prove to be even closer on the velodrome, as the contenders threw their last effort and their bikes on the line. Nobody raised his arms. And everybody ended up waiting for ten minutes that felt like a decade. “It was a strange moment because you just don’t know what to believe, what’s going to happen”, Bauer says.
The jury eventually announced 8 April 1990 was Planckaert’s day, claiming Roubaix a couple of years after he had won the Ronde van Vlaanderen, despite Bauer’s stunning effort. “I was good, fit, and ready, but it also comes down to how the race evolved, and I think I hit all right targets”, the Canadian reflects. “I made the right decisions all the way to the final metre, where I suppose the only way I lost the race was I didn’t time the bike throw. And neither did Planckaert. But, you know, that centimetre that he was in front makes all the difference in the world.”

A SPRINT LIKE NO OTHER

“I always thought that Roubaix would be something exciting and that would suit me.” As he already took on the Hell of the North as a neo-pro, Bauer had little experience of Northern Classics, but he trusted skills honed as a criterium racer in America to survive the day and, potentially, show his track background on the Roubaix velodrome. “It’s just a fantastic way to finish the race,” he says with intact excitement. “It’s so iconic to finish on a velodrome, particularly a race like Roubaix, the Hell of the North.”
“Having the track experience, I immediately went up the banking to make sure that I could accelerate or match any attack”, he recounts about the time he sprinted for cobble glory. “I saw Edwig Van Hooydonck’s attack, which was important to not get caught off guard. I came underneath, which gave me an advantage over Planckaert coming down the straightaway. We were head to head and he just managed to get me by a centimetre.”
Bauer considers he could have timed better his bike throw. “You’re pushing so hard, you just see black”, he explains. “I almost expected the finish line to be a little bit further in the straightaway. It’s a 400-metre track and with the experience I had, I knew the line was off center, just before the banking. But there I timed it wrong. But I still did quite a fantastic sprint.”

WIN OR LOSE, IT STANDS ABOVE

“I believed I could Roubaix, and that was the foal every time I raced the race”, Bauer says about his eleven participations from 1985 until 1995, marked by his place of second in 1990, as well as a couple more top-10 results. “I just learned that it’s one of the most amazing bike races in the world. If the athlete is inspired, it really brings a fantastic piece of your career, because it creates stories… And one of the biggest stories is my second place at one centimetre. I guess if it wasn’t iconic racing, I wouldn’t be telling that story still.”
Perhaps more than any other race, Roubaix and its many tales of survivors and ill-fated destinies prove history doesn’t only belong to the victors, although they are particularly referred in the velodrome. “Of course, I would like to have my own shower stall and the pavé stone in my living room”, says Bauer, who also lost the 1989 world championships in dramatic fashion, with a puncture in the finale just as he was about to vie for the rainbow jersey against Greg LeMond.
“Winning is sport, it’s the top of the game, and that’s what everybody aspires to”, the sporting manager reflects. “But I can take away from Roubaix that I did amazing races, not only second, but I finished fourth on occasion, eighth as well. So I was in the game. I wasn’t a support guy. I was really going to win the race, which is something nice that you can remember.”

THE TRANSMISSION GOES ON

1996 was Steve Bauer’s final year in the peloton, and the only season where he didn’t participate in Paris-Roubaix, ruled by Mapei’s Johan Museew, Gianluca Bortolami and Andrea Tafi. “Their collective strength was difficult to beat”, the Canadian explains. “Roubaix is one of those races where there’s quite a few favourites that have a chance, because of its nature. But a team like that really dominated with the number of riders that could control the front of the race in the final.”
Three decades later, he observes the dominance of champions such as Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar as a sporting manager for NSN - whose Roubaix dreams this year will be powered by riders of the calibre of Hugo Hofstetter and Lewis Askey - after previous roles at CCC (with whom he accompanied Greg Van Avermaet to 12th place in Paris-Roubaix 2019) and Astana. “It’s important to see the evolution as the race goes on”, he says. “It’s a race that you have to be attentive the whole time and there’s never a dull moment, from the start to the first cobbles, to the Forest of Arenberg, and into the finale. You can never let your guard down. You have to be sharp the whole day.” Then only fate may turn your way.