The Cycliste Moderne, 25 de Abril 2006

Sorry for the delay. The man got in the way of getting stuff done, the wife, three kids and 25 de Abril, the celebration of the overthrow of fascism in Portugal, certainliy did not facilitate a timely post either. Now we can catch our breath and look back at the spring classics.

End to Classics

Sunday marked the end of the spring classic season. Historically, the spring classics were the most significant one-day races of the year. They had more history, significance and color than the post Tour de France one-day races. It is fitting that the spring classic ends with the oldest bike race in the world, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which began in 1892. Wednesday was the Fleche Wallone with its three trips up the incredibly steep Mur de Huy.

Fleche Wallone

Fleche Wallone is not as long as Liege-Bastogne-Liege, not as old as Liege-Bastogne-Liege and is frequently overshadowed by its older neighbor. Fleche Wallone starts in Charleroi and winds its way to Huy for the first of three trips up the Mur de Huy and then into the rolling hillsides south of Huy. The Ardennes classics are not like the Flemish climbs that were raced over a few weeks ago. They are longer and steeper and it is much more a race for climbers and even stage race riders.

Wednesday’s Fleche Wallone was ridden very aggressively with all of the expected protagonists staying at the front. That morning, both of my boys were wide awake at various times between 3:30AM and 4:30AM. At 4:30 I announced to my wife that I was going to the office. That was fortuitous as I was able to turn on the stream and catch the last half of the race. Oscar Freire of Rabobank and Alexandre Moos of Phonak made an aggressive move with 60km to go and managed to get a lead of more than one minute before the peleton really responded.

The Freire/Moos break stayed away until about 10km when they were swallowed up by the chase. The leading group stayed together until the final trip up the Mur de Huy. All the big teams had their leaders together at the base of the Mur, with Ivan Basso of Team CSC riding to set up his teammates Frank Schleck and Karsten Kroon. It was not enough, however as former world champion and 2003 Fleche Wallone winner Igor Astarloa first attacked and got a gap only to then be passed by Euskaltel’s Samual Sanchez and Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Epargne and the Team CSC riders. At the end Alejandro Valverde took the win showing he remains a unique talent who is able to sprint and climb.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege

The midweek race in Huy always shows who has the form leading up to “La Doyenne” on Sunday. Although Valverde was clearly a favorite, in a unique bit of historic cycling trivia that makes you go “huh?” no Spaniard had ever won Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The race on Sunday played out very similarly to the Wednesday’s race. However, Liege-Bastogne-Liege is significantly longer and has 10 significant climbs on the way back to Liege including the uphill finish in Ans. Liege-Bastogne-Liege is a fantastic race due to the unrelenting climbs that the peleton faces town after town.

Rabobank’s Michael Boogerd got in a late break with Joaquin Rodriguez of Caisse d’Epargne that got a good lead. However, with less than 10km to go the break got caught by the leading group that had all of the potential winners you would expect: Bettini of Quick.Step, Basso and Schleck of Team CSC, Di Luca of Liquigas.

Valverde watched his opponents until 300m to the finish when he wound up and finally came around T-Mobile’s Patrick Sinkewitz’s wheel for the win. Paolo Bettini finished second and young Italian star Damiano Cunego finished third. This should have been a race where “the Cricket” Bettini would have been expected to win, but Valverde is coming into his own and showing the same skills that Bettini has used for much success over the years. If Valverde learns to time trial really well, then he has the potential to become the next great Spanish stage race champion as he can climb and he can sprint.

Interestingly, the final group of 12 included Davitamon-Lotto’s American rider Chris Horner who has had some really good results this spring and has shown he belongs at this level. He does not whine nearly as much as he did when he was racing in America and dominating the National Race Calendar.

Tour of Georgia

While Horner was finishing the hilly classics with a 20th at Amstel Gold Race, a 19th at Fleche Wallone and an 8th at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, most of the rest of the Americans in the professional peleton were racing around Georgia. As was the case at the Tour of California, it was pretty clear that the ProTour teams are significantly better than their domestic American counterparts. Floyd Landis won his third stage race of the season holding off repeated attacks by the Discovery Channel team as they raced up the final climb of Saturday’s fifth stage which finished on Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia. Alone with three Discovery Channel riders, Landis defended his four second lead over defending champion Tom Danielson of Discovery. Danielson won the stage but had to settle for second place on GC.

Landis had collapsed last year under the unrelenting pressure of his former team in the Brasstown Bald finish as Danielson took the stage and overall in 2005, beating Landis by more than a minute. Armstrong had harsh words and gestures for his former lieutenant during the stage last year. This year Landis again showed himself as a leader for Phonak and a potential Tour de France podium finisher if Phonak can provide him more support. Throughout the spring, Landis has time trialed exceedingly well and has shown incredible climbing power. However, he has frequently found himself isolated in the final climbs. Phonak could have its best Tour finish ever, as long as they give Landis the support he has proven he deserves.

Danielson and Yaroslav Popovych of Discovery Channel are both showing good form. Discovery probably cannot expect to win both the Giro and the Tour this year but they can expect to have 2-3 riders in each capable of top 10 finishes.

Moreover, Salvoldelli may have more support in the Giro this year than he did last year when he managed to hold off Gilberto Simoni for the win. Discovery will not have to commit quite as many resources to defending Armstrong’s Tour de France streak and the team has other emerging riders who can climb and work, like Jason McCartney. He probably worked harder than anyone else during this year’s Tour of Georgia as he won the KoM prize and seemed to be in every meaningful breakaway.

The Cycliste Moderne, April 16, 2006

The Amstel Gold Race Recap

Sunday was the 41st Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. Amstel Gold Race marks the end of the flat classics and the beginning of the mountainous classics ridden largely in the Ardennes with Amstel Gold Race taking place in the Dutch portion of the Ardennes in the region around Maastricht, Fleche Wallone taking place midweek in and around Huy, Belgium and next Sunday’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege finishing the spring classic season. Cycling.tv has all three races live this week, so I got up this morning, not quite as early as last week and watched the final 50km of the race through the Limburg region of the Netherlands along the Belgian and German borders.

As it is the only classic in the Netherlands, Amstel Gold Race has special significance to Dutch riders and in specific to Dutch sponsors. As a result, Rabobank was expected to be strong today as they have each of the last seven years when they managed to put a rider on the podium. Rabobank’s Michael Boogerd beat Lance Armstrong to win in 1999, and the team won again in 2001 when Erik Dekker again outlasted Lance Armstrong. Since then, Boogerd has finished second three consecutive years.

The Amstel Gold Race has 31 climbs including three trips up the Cauberg in Valkenburg where the race finishes. The Dutch climbs are short but steep with many averaging over 15% including some over 20%. Even with those types of climbs, it is not uncommon for the race to finish with a sprint up the final kilometer to the summit of the Cauberg from the valley floor in Valkenburg.

That did not happen today as the peleton rode aggressively and Rabobank rode defensively. Rabobank spent much of the day at the front controlling the pace of the race to set up Boogerd, Dekker or Spaniard Oscar Friere for the victory. In the end, even though the team managed to close down a dangerous late break with Quick.Step’s Paolo Bettini in it, it was not able to control late attacks. T-Mobile’s Steffan Wessamann was probably the strongest rider today but did not ride very tactically and although he animated the race late in the day, he found himself out of position and reacting to the final attack with 10km to go when Team CSC’s Franck Schleck, the national champion of Luxembourg, quickly rode away from the peleton managing to open an insurmountable thirty second lead within a couple of kilometers. When Wessamann finally attacked, it was too late and Team CSC had their second classic victory in a row.

Team CSC had ridden a perfect race and had two men in the final break with Dutch rider Karsten Kroon well positioned to counterattack if Schleck fell short. In the end, Rabobank failed to get the race back together but Boogerd managed to follow Wessamann across the finish to complete the podium.

Why Team Tactics Matter #1

Sunday showed once again that if you are going to try to control a race, then you better keep it controlled or you will end up with almost nothing to show for it. After Milram rode at the front most of the day at Milan-San Remo to try and control the race, the team found itself at the end of the race with just two riders, Petacchi and Zabel, contesting the finish. While both are strong riders, Petacchi needed more of a leadout than he got as he just fell short of chasing down Quick.Step’s Filippo Pozzato.

Rabobank did the same thing today. Although most of the rest of the peleton was willing to let the early break get a big gap, Rabobank tried to control the race and ended up expending too much energy to be able to keep the race together for its leaders at the end. Rabobank failed in its home race because it rode like it was afraid of losing, which is exactly what happened.

With the larger budgets and larger rosters that ProTour teams have today, there is much more depth in the peleton than ever before. Most of the ProTour teams are now able to have a classics team for the flat classics in Flanders and an essentially different team for the hilly classics later in April. As such, all the top teams come with a full complement of strong riders, something that did not typically happen under the old racing calendar.

Why Team Tactics Matter #2

Although Steffan Wessamann was clearly one of the strongest riders today, he probably lost because of poor tactical awareness. T-Mobile managed to place four riders in the top 21 with three in the top 10 on the day. Wessamann attacked repeatedly and put in a really big attack with about 40km to go. He had teammates in the chase. However, he had to settle for second place on the day. Why? Because he was significantly stronger than his teammates and his late attacks put his teammates under too much pressure to make them be of any assistance late in the race. When Schleck finally attacked, Wessamann found himself essentially alone as neither Serguei Ivanov nor Patrik Sinkewitz could match his pace at that point. They all had good results, but Wessamann’s early attacks and his teammates inability to counterattack thereafter made second place the best that he could do on the day.

Hincapie Update

George Hincapie of Discovery Channel returned to the United States for medical treatment after his hard crash last Sunday at Paris-Roubaix. Throughout the week there were various conflicting reports as to whether he would or would not need surgery. It now appears that he did not break anything, but instead separated his shoulder and surgery will not be needed. It is expected that Hincapie will be back on the bike in a couple of weeks and the injury should not affect his Tour de France preparation.

It is interesting to see the volume of letters to the various cycling websites who are once again calling on Hincapie to move to a different team because of the failure of his bike’s steerer tube. Hincapie has become great rider, however, two men are responsible for that greatness: Lance Armstrong and Johann Buyneel. As we have discussed before, any rider who wins Paris-Roubaix has to be strong and incredibly lucky. Hincapie is fairly strong but he has not had the luck that was truly needed to win the race.

The Cycliste Moderne, April 9, 2006

Today was going to be all about Paris-Roubaix, but it isn’t. As Kristin and I watched Cycling.tv’s live webcast of the race we got the call from my father that we had been expecting all week. My grandfather died early this morning, three days short of his 94th birthday. Kristin and I were married on my grandfather’s 79th birthday and as a result, spent our first anniversary in 1992 traveling from Salt Lake to Boise with my family to celebrate his 80th birthday. As such, our relationship has always had a personal link to my grandfather.

When Kristin and I started Cyclista.com, we had an image in mind that captured our love of bikes. That is the photo of my grandfather that we display on our website. Although he had spent much of his life as a teamster or a hard rock miner, as a young man my grandfather was a Western Union delivery boy in Nampa, Idaho. We took this picture from the mid 1920’s of grandpa on his bike, added our logo, and Cyclista.com was launched. I am eternally grateful for his example of hard work that has affected us all during our lives.

Heamer Wayne Wardle
April 12, 1912 - April 9, 2006

Paris-Roubaix Recap

Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix was certainly epic and certainly what you would expect from the “Hell of the North.” However, it reaffirmed for me why, for me, it is second to the Ronde Van Vlaanderen in significance. To win the Ronde a rider has to be the strongest. To win Paris-Roubaix a rider has to be strong and lucky. Certainly, weak riders cannot win Paris-Roubaix. However, the role that luck plays in the race is just too significant to claim that Paris-Roubaix is proof of who is the strongest rider in the peleton. I love Paris-Roubaix, but watching it is like watching a car wreck.

Fortunately, this year Cycling.tv arranged to provide live race coverage for North American subscribers. Friday night I whipped out my credit card and became a premium subscriber. Even though my DSL service typically only runs at about 400kps, not the 1.5mbps that I pay for, Cycling.tv’s free race coverage typically comes through just fine. I was concerned, however about the effect that all the demand for the greatest one day race in the world from the cycling starved masses of North America would have on the service. So when Kristin and I woke up at 6AM Sunday morning to fire up the laptop and watch the race from our bed (isn’t wireless technology great?) and the stream immediately worked, I was a very happy man. It has been about 4 years since OLN last offered live coverage of the race and I have been without OLN since Dish Network removed its programming last fall.

We picked up the race about 15km before the Arenberg Forest, which is section 17 of cobbles. Last year the Arenberg Forest was removed from the route because it was considered too dangerous due to damage to the path and subsidence caused by coal mining in the area. After the local government rehabbed the 2km segment, it was returned to the race. The “new” Arenberg Forest certainly had more cobbles as the path had been widened, but it is not clear if it is any real improvement. Tom Boonen complained before the race that the improvements had actually made it harder by eliminating the dirt path that many riders would typically take along the main cobble road. Others had complained in years past that the Arenberg Forest played too important a role in deciding the outcome of the race. Needless to say, as the peleton approached the Arenberg Forest the race speed increased, the riders got nervous, and it was clear that, as is usually the case at Paris-Roubaix, any rider who was not in the top 25 coming out of the forest was probably through for the day.

Just as he had done last week at the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, Tom Boonen went to the front and attacked on the most difficult stretch of the race course. Boonen showed why he is one of the strongest riders in the peleton as the peleton shattered once the road narrowed and the riders entered the forest. By the end of the Arenberg Forest, Boonen had ended the race for such teams as Milram, Credit Agricole, and Gerolsteiner, which had failed to stay at the front and make the break.

By the time the carnage was done, Boonen had shown he was strong but probably cost himself the race in doing it. A leading group of fifteen ended up with Boonen with a 30 second gap to the chasing group behind. The leading group contained all of the pre-race favorites. In addition to Boonen, past winners Frédéric Guesdon of Francaise de Jeux and Peter Van Petegem of Davitamon-Lotto was in the break as were past Paris-Roubaix top ten finishers Lars Michaelson and Fabian Cancellara of Team CSC, Juan Antonio Flecha of Rabobank, Steffan Wesseman of T-Mobile and George Hincapie of Discovery. Spring strong men Alessandro Ballan of Lampre, Leif Hoste and Vladimir Gusev of Discovery also made the final selection.

Boonen found himself isolated without a single teammate in the leading group with Team CSC, Francaise de Jeux and Discovery all with multiple riders in the lead. Quick.Step immediately sent its entire team to the front of the chase group to try and bridge up to their leader but even with seven riders on the front of the chase, the motivated leading group managed to increase its lead as everyone worked to make sure Boonen got no more help. And with that, 90km from the end of the race, it was clear that the quality of the leading group was so high that they would stay away and the winner would come from that group.

As the race wore on the leading group was gradually reduced in size to the point that there were just a dozen riders left and it looked like George Hincapie would become the first American to win Paris-Roubaix. Paris-Roubaix is Hincapie’s favorite race. He has come very close to winning the race before with numerous top ten finishes. US Postal Service and Discovery Channel have ridden the race for Hincapie and over the past three to four years have sent strong teams to support him in the race. Last year Hincapie matched Boonen’s moves the entire race but was unable to get past his former teammate in the closing stretch of the race on the Roubaix Velodrome. Boonen is simply faster than Hincapie.

However, even though Discovery had ridden the perfect race to deliver Hincapie his first victory at Paris-Roubaix, it was not to be. With 45km to go, Hincapie was thrown to the ground as his steering tube failed, causing his handle bars to collapse and Hincapie to go over the handle bars on his uncontrollable bike. He crashed at full speed having no way to slow down and no way to steer and landed hard on his right shoulder. Hincapie’s day was over and although he did not appear to have broken any bones, Belgian press is reporting that Hincapie is going to require surgery on his shoulder.

By this point our two youngest children were awake and in bed watching the race with us on the laptop.

Although his teammates waited momentarily, Hoste and Gusev chased to get back to the leaders who were continuing to splinter into smaller and smaller groups. Boonen looked human without his teammates and Flecha and Team CSC continued to attack the world champion. Ultimately, Boonen cracked when Gusev attacked and only Cancellara managed to go with Discovery’s Russian rider. Cancellara and Gusev built up a thirty second lead and then Cancellara, a former Swiss time trial champion and Tour de France prologue winner, rolled off the front and away from Gusev. Van Petegem attacked next with Hoste and they managed to bridge up to Gusev. Boonen was now more than a minute behind Cancellara and more than thirty seconds behind the chasing group of three.

Then another twist of fate intervened to affect the outcome of Paris-Roubaix. With 10km to go, Van Petegem, Gusev and Hoste were forty seconds behind Cancellara and Boonen was another minute back. Cancellara passed over a train crossing only to have it close after him. The first chase group rode around the closed barriers to keep up the chase of Cancellara. They were followed by the neutral support motorcycles and the TV motorcycles. Boonen and his group arrived just in time for a freight train to pass through, losing even more time. Typically, train schedules are modified for the race so there is no possibility of the type of conflict happening that did today. The rules generally provide that if there is a temporary obstruction of the course that causes the leader of the race to stop, losing his advantage that the race will be restarted and chasing riders held to restore the advantage. However, if chasing riders are stopped at a train crossing, then they are to wait and no adjustment will be made to their times or to the race organization. Clearly, had the first chase group waited like they were supposed to and not cut through the closed barricades, Boonen would have caught them and they all would have been back together with Flecha as well.

Cancellara then raced in to Roubaix alone and circled the historic velodrome for his first classic win. Hoste, Gusev and Van Petegem began attacking each other over the closing kilometers and when they entered the velodrome Hoste and Gusev engaged in a classic track attack on their faster Belgian rival. In the end, Hoste came around Van Petegem to finish second just like he had last week at the Ronde Van Vlaanderen.

Boonen came in later and won the sprint for fourth. However, Boonen was elevated to second place as Hoste, Van Petegem and Gusev were all disqualified for cutting through the barricades.

Cancellara was a deserving winner. He has finished in the top ten each of the last two years and he is a strong rider on a strong team. He had focused all season on this race so it was not a surprise that he won. He was very lucky, however, as he was not taken down by Hincapie’s crash, he managed to avoid the train delay, and Boonen had destroyed his own team. Cancellara was one of the strongest riders today, but he was certainly the luckiest rider today.

Hincapie will most certainly come back and try to win Paris-Roubaix again next year, but you have to wonder if he has become like a golfer who is looking for that elusive major and manages to always been in the hunt but never quite win. Hincapie will go down as the best American classics rider ever, but he will always be shadowed by his inability to win the race that he loves. Discovery has built him a team focused on winning spring classics. He has the form to be competitive. However, there is always something that keeps Hincapie from winning the Hell of the North.

Don’t Be a Whiner

Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha is the best classic rider in Spain. He has shown skill and ability in the northern classics, something that no other Spaniard of the current generation has done. Today he was very aggressive, almost too aggressive and that probably cost him the race. However, afterwards, when asked to comment on the train passage, the disqualifications of the Discovery and Davitamon riders, and the outcome of the race, Velonews.com reported Flecha commented that although it was good they stopped Boonen’s group at the train crossing because of safety, he was sure that they would have caught the Discovery/Davitamon group had they not jumped the barrier and that would have changed the race. Really, if you make somebody who has nearly a minute lead stop and wait for a minute, then yes Juan Antoino Flecha you probably would have caught the guys ahead of you. In reality, it sounded of Flecha’s sour grapes for not being able to beat Ballan in the sprint at the end. Boonen for his part has acknowledged that the train crossing should not have affected the outcome as the positions of the final seven riders were already set by that point.

Wearing Your Helmet

Young American talent Saul Rasin, who rides for the French Credit Agricole team, is currently in a coma, having crashed 2km from the finish of Tuesday’s stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. Although he broke a collar bone and some ribs in the crash, Rasin was alert after the crash. However, by Wednesday his condition worsened, his brain began to swell and as a result of bleeding in his skull, doctors put him in a drug induced coma and operated on his brain. Raisin took the whole crash on the top of his head and would most likely have died from the impact like Andre Kivilev did a few years ago had he not been wearing his helmet. Raisin’s condition has stabilized but he remains comatose.

Cycling.tv

Cycling.tv launched a web based cycling station a few years ago. Initially, the content was quite limited: old mountain bike races, minor Belgian races, and the like. Over the last year, they have seriously improved the quantity and quality of their offerings. Additionally, they added a premium subscription service that offers some of the best races out there. With Dish Network’s elimination of OLN and OLN’s reduction in live coverage, Cycling.tv is a great resource. OLN and Cycling.tv have combined their resources to host OLN’s daily live coverage of the upcoming Giro d’Italia. Cycling.tv has also announced the development of a new channel of content which will include track events organized by the UCI. Cycling.tv has also added a daily news broadcast on cycling. It is short on actual race coverage but has timely information and interviews. If you have a broadband connection and you just cannot get enough cycling, you definitely should check it out at Cycling.tv.

The Cycliste Moderne, April 2, 2006

Ronde Van Vlaanderen/Tour of Flanders Recap

Quick.Step’s Tom Boonen won his second consecutive Tour of Flanders today by out-sprinting Leif Hoste of Discovery Channel. Boonen became the first rider in 30 years to win consecutive Tours of Flanders and became just the second rider to win in Flanders wearing the World Champion’s jersey.

The day started wet and cold and there were serious concerns about the course. Due to several days of constant rain, portions of the course were considered unrideable. The Koppenberg was a significant concern due to significant accumulations of mud on the cobbles of the steep climb. Saturday, race organizers inspected and cleaned the Koppenberg, but everyone knew that if it continued to rain, the climb could prove to be decisive.

The weather turned better after the riders headed away from the coast, with the rain stopping and the sun coming out. As a result, it became clear that even though conditions were difficult, the rain would not decide the race. The roads dried up as the day wore on and the race got serious once the first climbs were encountered after 145km.

Boonen and Quick.Step showed their strength once the climbs started. Discovery also showed its strength as the day wore on. Amazingly, the decisive climb of the day turned out to be the Koppenberg. Quick.Step rode strong for Boonen, delivering him to the base of the Koppenberg where he attacked, creating the decisive split of the day. Boonen’s attack destroyed the peleton as he rode away from such big names as Erik Zabel of Milram, Thor Husovd of Credit Agricole and Juan Antonio Flecha of Rabobank.

As the leaders regrouped at the top of the Koppenberg, the lead group had about 20 riders in it. Boonen found himself with teammates Serge Baguet, Filipo Pozatto, and Paolo Bettini, Team CSC had Karsten Kroon and Fabian Cancellara in the break, and Discovery had Leif Hoste and George Hincapie. Former winner Peter Van Petegem made the break as did last year’s runner up Andreas Klier and Lampre’s classic man Alessandro Ballan. With the configuration of that group it was clear that the day was over for anyone not in the front 20. Everyone else should have just ridden back into Oudenaarde and taken a shower.

The Koppenberg proved to be decisive because most of the peleton ended up getting off their bikes and hiking to the top. That would lose them significant amounts of time and would leave them demoralized.

Meanwhile, Quick.Step put Pozzato and Baguet on the front and they put the hurt on the rest of the leaders. Boonen’s team rode the perfect race today and when Hoste attacked on the Valkenberg with about 25km to go, Boonen marked him and the two rode away from the peleton. Bettini then played defense covering every attempt to bridge to the two leaders and Hincapie was left to ride defensively in support of his teammate, Hoste.

Hoste and Boonen then proceeded to get a two minute lead as they reached the final climbs of the day. Hoste is strong, but he cannot match Boonen in the sprint and in the final 1km the riders played games to see who would lead out the sprint. Hoste attacked with 500 meters to go but Boonen would not lose and came around him to win by a second. The race for third would result in George Hincapie out-sprinting Van Petegem to complete the podium.


Lessons from the 2006 Ronde

1. Predicting that Tom Boonen of Quick.Step would do well during the Ronde Van Vlaanderen is a lot like predicting the Yankees will make the playoffs. These just are things that are pretty likely to happen. Boonen has cemented his status as the best Belgian rider of his generation and certainly is a rider in the mold of Johann Museeuw. He has speed, he has power and he showed today why he has all the tools to be the greatest classic rider in the last twenty years.

2. Discovery Channel has built a classics team that is rivaled only by Quick.Step. Although there has been some criticism by American “fans” about not having enough American riders on the team, it is clear that with its current classics team of Americans, Belgians, Russians, Dutch, Australians and Brits, it is every bit as good as Quick.Step and Davitamon Lotto, the Belgian classic machines. Those are the same American “fans” who complained that Discovery/US Postal Service did not take the classics seriously enough. You cannot send out boys to do a man’s job, which is what US Postal Service used to do when they sent largely American teams to the classics.

3. George Hincapie is one of the strongest all-around riders in the peleton; however, for those Americans that think he should be winning more one day classics, it must be pointed out that while he is as strong as Boonen, Van Petegem, Petacchi, or Zabel, he lacks the pure speed of a sprinter. He will never beat Boonen heads up in a sprint, although George can time trial and climb as he showed during last year’s Tour de France.

Paris-Roubaix Preview

Next Sunday is Paris-Roubaix and Boonen again has to be a favorite to win the race. Right now he has the complete package. He is as fast as Petacchi, as strong as Hoste and Hincapie and he has the strongest team in the world right now. Quick.Step has won the first two classics of the season and if Boonen falters then his teammates Nick Nuyens, Filippo Pozatto and even Paolo Bettini could all be victorious.

Clearly, Discovery Channel should be strong although the loss of Roger Hammond in a crash during the Ronde and Max Van Heeswijk to a crash during this week’s stage race in De Panne will weaken them somewhat.

Lampre’s Alessandro Ballan continues to show early season strength and should be a factor. Sooner or later he will have to win this spring in light of how strong he has been.

So far, the Milram superteam has been a disappointment, after riding to win at Milan San Remo but failing to deliver Petacchi to victory and having Petacchi abandon during the Ronde.

Paris-Roubaix has none of the climbs found at the Tour of Flanders but it does have a lot more cobble stones sections. Additionally, unlike the Tour of Flanders which heads west to the ocean to start, Paris Roubais heads northeast to the Belgian French border and then turns west to the ocean making wind much more of a factor.

It will be interesting to se what condition the Arenburg Forest is in after being removed last year for renovations to the cobbles to make the sector safer. The Arenburg Forest is a lot like the Koppenberg. If you are not at the front at that point, you might as well call it a day because you probably won't get back in contact with the front thereafter.