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.