April 10, 2005 – After the Tour of Flanders we reported that Tom Boonen (Quickstep) might be ready to assume the mantle of Belgium’s main cycling star, following the retirement of Johan Museeuw last season. And when the Flemish star turned in a very strong performance at Gand-Wevelgem a few days later, where race tactics kept him from being a more significant factor, the question began to surface as to how long he could maintain his tremendous run of form. The answer: a few more days still. In dominating style, delivering a sure thing as the cobbles of northern France can deliver, Boonen easily outsprinted final companions George Hincapie (Dicovery) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Fassa) for his second classic win of the year.

With the win, Boonen joined Peter Van Petegem (2003) as recent Flanders-Roubaix double winners. But considering recent results, and the fact that Boonen’s birthdate is an even decade later than the veteran Van Petegem’s, there’s no question now about who the Flemish rider of the future is. When Museeuw retired it was unclear who the successor might be, and Belgian fans have become used to long waits between top stars. But now, less than a year later, that question has been aswered.

Right from the opening kilometers, and despite a very fast 45km/h start, a four-man break made up of Erwin Thijs (MrBookmaker), Stéphane Berges (Agritubel), David Herrero (Euskaltel) and Sebastian Lang (Gerosteiner), attacked and managed to build a 1-minute gap after 50km. They were eventually joined by a second four-man group to form an eight-man break, with the addition of Carlos Barredo (Liberty Seguros), Sébastien Chavanel (Bouygues), Florent Brard (Agritubel) and Arnaud Coyot (Cofidis). With eight men sharing the load, they began to motor: at the 70km mark, they’d pushed their lead to over 11 minutes.

But their lead began to suffer once they hit the first sections of cobbles in Troisvilles, and after an additional few sections of cobbles the Discovery team began to push the pace in earnest — with Canadian Mike Barry, a late addition to the Paris-Roubaix team, doing a tremendous share of the work in front.

With 100 km to go in the 259km race, the break began to struggle with the loss of Chavanel, Herrero, and Lang, reducing the group to five. Meanwhile, the difficult, muddy conditions were taking their toll, particularly on the Davitamon-Lotto team: both Tom Steels and Peter Van Petegem went down in crashes, and though they initially managed to chase back on they eventually fell back”¦ and out.

As the race hit the fourteenth section of cobbles in Hornaing, an acceleration by Quickstep’s Pozzato led to a definitive chase group comprising all the major threats: Pozzato’s teammate Tom Boonen, defending champ Magnus Backstedt (Liquigas), Hincapie (Discovery), Michaelsen (CSC), Flecha and Cancellara (Fassa), and with Steels and Van Petegem out, Davitamon-Lotto’s Leon Van Bon, trying his luck.

With less than two dozen riders left in the main pack, it was time to make a move. A second group, sensing that the game was being played out, immediately formed from the remnants of the pack and gave chase, including Hushovd and Kirsipuu (Credit Agricole), Rabobank teammates Wauters and Hayman, O’Grady (Cofidis) and others. The group also picked up Van Bon, who punctured out of the first chase group. With 60km to go the two chase groups were 2:00 and 2:45 back, respectively.

The Boonen group caught the breakaway of five with 50km remaining in the race – their break had lasted 185km. Once caught, they began to trail off: the lead group now consisted of Boonen, Backstedt, Hincapie, Michaelsen, and Fassa teammates Flecha and Cancellara, with Van Bon, Wesemann (T-Mobile) and Hulsmans (Quickstep) a further 40 seconds back. And at 2:30, the peloton was certainly beginning to lack firepower.

In one of the major events of the race, Cancellara punctured out of the lead group with 45km remaining. Things immediately went from good to bad for Fassa: from having two strong men in a lead group of six, they now had a single rider (Flecha) in a group of five — a dramatic change. Joining the second group, Cancellara partnered with Van Bon to try and close the gap to the lead five. But considering the firepower up ahead and the fact that the leftovers from the morning break were doing all they could to hold wheels, let alone work, the effort was doomed. The race would be decided by the lead five — even Flecha began taking pulls up front, no longer able to realistically maintain that he had a teammate who might chase up.

The last truly awful section of cobbles, a 2km five-star section at Carrefour de l’Arbre with 15km remaining, began to decide the race. After a short attack by Backstedt, Flecha made a huge effort that only Boonen and Hincapie could match. Backstedt dropped slightly — a truly painful effort pay ahead if he was to get back on. In another piece of terrible luck, Michaelson punctured. Boonen followed Flecha’s effort with one of his own, and Hincapie and Flecha held tight. Now there were three.

Simply put, Flecha and Hincapie had to be crazy to like their chances in a sprint against Boonen, who with under 10km remaining was beginning to have to egg his cohorts on. That being said, a solo attack now by either Hincapie or Flecha would make life very difficult for the Flanders winner — who would help him? — and he knew the surest way to pre-empt that was to keep the pace high.

The pulls got shorter and the eyeing got more suspicious, but as the riders crossed the last short section of cobbles and entered the velodrome in Roubaix led by Hincapie, they were still together. It was everything that Boonen had hoped for, and he stayed well behind Flecha and Hincapie before launching a sprint that neither could counter. Hincapie hung on for second, his first podium in Roubaix and a very courageous ride for the American considering his flu-ridden, uneven run-up to the race. For Flecha, a second classics podium in a handful of days, and a second disappointment for the other, much more unexpected, classics strongman of the year.

103rd Paris-Roubaix
1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick.Step 6.27.31
2. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery
3. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Fassa Bortolo
4. Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Liquigas-Bianchi 1.09
5. Lars Michaelsen (Den) CSC 2.28
6. Leon Van Bon (Ned) Davitamon-Lotto 3.45
7. Florent Brard (Fra) Agritubel
8. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Fassa Bortolo
9. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole
10. Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Cofidis