Sylvan Chavanel is away alone and has nearly a minute on the peloton with 60 plus km to go. I guess Boonen (also Quickstep) saw a weakness in his chief rival and race favorite, Fabian Cancellara (Leopard-Trek) and attacks seemingly trying to bridge across to his teammate up the road, which if successful would be brilliant. However, this was a foolish move as Cancellara was quick to grab his wheel and instead of sitting up, Boonen must have thought he could drop Cancellara, and motors on. Well, of course the opposite happens and Cancellara drops Boonen as well as the rest of the stragglers and bridges across solo to Chavanel. Chavanel, of course, will not work with Cancellara, and so Cancellara is on a 60 km time trial to the finish with Chavanel on his wheel and with two of those nasty, short and steep cobbled climbs to go. He (they) hold nearly a minute on the chasing bunch all the way to the second to last climb, the famous Muur-Kapelmuur, Cancellara runs out of gas (later reported to have been cramping) and the chasing bunch of remaining pre-race contenders catch the two leaders. On the Muur, Cancellara was dropped, but did not fully blow and hung on, chasing back on to the group just over the top of the Muur. On to the final climb, The Bosberg and to the finish. Despite a strong attack by Philipe Gilbert, the group was intact with 12 km to go to the finish. Attacks came fast and furious, when finally the now, somehow recovered, Cancellara's attack sticks with only Chavanel and Belgian, Nick Nuyens able to follow his wheel. Well, with 1 km to go and the chasers hot on their tail, Cancellara winds up the sprint, which is won by Nuyens, with Chavanel second and Spartacus third. Exciting race. Strange tactics and a bit too much believing in the media hype of their own invincibility by Cancellara and Boonen. A great race. Next week's Paris-Robauix promises to be every bit as exciting.
As an aside, the first Tour of Flanders was in 1913 (same year the US Fed Res was created, hmmm) making the race a nearly 100 year old tradition (it was not held during WW1 and WW2). Saying nothing about this year's racers, but, attesting to the plague which haunts pro cycling, especially for the Grand Tours, where recovery is the key, Please note the following result from the first Ronde van Vlaanderen - there is nothing new under the sun.
| 1913 | Paul Deman (Bel), Jozef Van Daele (Bel), Victor Doms (Bel) | ||
| (1) | Reybrouck (2nd) disqualified (doping) | ||
| (2) | Godefroot (3rd) disqualified (doping) | ||
| (3) | Freddy Maertens (2nd) and Walter Planckaert (3rd) disqualified (doping) |
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