Omega Pharma-Quick Step

The moment the Tour de France ended, it became all about the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro for most involved in cycling.

Not so much for Tom Boonen.

"I have no idea," he pleasantly replies when asked if he has a prediction for the men's road race at the Games. The Tour largely passed him by too.

It is understandable. The last days of the year's second Grand Tour were marked for Boonen by the confirmation he would be staying at longtime team Etixx–Quick-Step into 2017, allowing him to close his often glorious career with an attempt at winning a record fifth Paris-Roubaix. (His glittering palmares also includes a trio of Tour of Flanders successes, a rainbow jersey at the World Championships and multiple Tour stage victories.)

Speaking on the eve of the RideLondon-Surrey Classic, Belgian cycling's modern great was relieved to have clarified his future.

"I was kind of mixed the last few months because after Roubaix, a few teams approached me if I wanted to help them out and set up something," the 35-year-old told Bleacher Report of the deliberations that eventually led him to opt against a longer project over two years. He added that he would "stay with my original plan and stop after Paris-Roubaix.

"I think I'm still OK now after my head injury [suffered in a crash during the Abu Dhabi Tour] last year took some big energy to come back on this level. So I think I want to try to go for another really well Classics spring season and then just try to stop on a high and not really fade out—I think I will if I do another two years.

"We have a strong connection with Tom, which goes back to 2003, when our team was established," Etixx–Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevere told the team's official website upon the new agreement's announcement. "By staying with us, Tom can count on a strong team which will support him in next season's Northern Classics campaign and in his assault for a fifth Paris-Roubaix."

Boonen naturally hopes he can deliver on this planned swansong, but it is also clear he is just as eager to savour the experiences of one last spring campaign, "to get that good feeling again on the cobblestones."

"Even just being there like this year would be already be very nice," he added.

Also doing media duties in the same riverside hotel was the man who denied Boonen a fifth "Hell of the North" title, Orica BikeExchange’s Mathew Hayman. "Paris-Roubaix, doing the Tour de France, it's been a good year for me," the 38-year-old reflected.

There is far from any ill will between the veterans who, interviews completed, chat while enjoying the establishment's electronic foot massages.

Days after winning a stage at, and briefly leading—the Tour de Wallonie—Boonen appeared motivated to ensure the remainder of 2016 is not just about setting himself up for next year's career denouement.

"This is the last moment I'm really preparing for the last part of the season and trying to improve," he said of his gradual summer preparations, including and via the RideLondon-Surrey Classic. "But I'm already, I think, on a decent level enough to win the races like this, so let’s go for it tomorrow and try to win."

Boonen's optimism proved well-founded.

After Team Sky rider Geraint Thomas' solo attack was caught upon the race's return to central London (the rest of the earlier breakaway also having been swept up), the peloton massed on The Mall for the event's first bunch sprint proper since its inaugural edition in 2013.

A day earlier, Boonen reminisced about winning on the same stretch of road on the concluding stage of the 2006 Tour of Britain. He beat Brits Roger Hammond and future team-mate Mark Cavendish racing away from Buckingham Palace rather than facing it like the Classic does.

This time, he pipped another old colleague in Mark Renshaw (now with Cavendish at Dimension Data) and recent Tour de France stage-winner Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange). Finding a clear route down the right, his acceleration proved sufficient to hold off the Australians' spirited charges.

Boonen described himself as "very happy" after the gruelling afternoon's riding.

"I was suffering all day long and people were going bananas all day, everybody was fighting for every metre, and at a certain point when we caught the first climb, I had a puncture, and I got behind a group that was dropped, so I was chasing for 20K," he explained.

"Caught back on, race exploded, got back in the back, so I was just chasing all day long, and then it was only in the final we had control of the race again. At 50K to go, we started chasing the first guys, and then, yeah, we got them in the last five kilometres."

Up next for Boonen is Dwars door het Hageland back home in Belgium on Friday. This along with RideLondon-Surrey and his next assignments will support the major target for the remainder of 2016: a hoped-for tilt at the World Championships in Qatar. His plans were confirmed in the wake of the aforementioned Wallonie win—per CyclingNews.

A competitor more commonly associated with springtime one-day successes in recent years is reiterating his enduring quality in the short layover between two of sport's greatest extravaganzas.

Whatever comes next, enjoy watching Boonen while you still can.

      

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

With his hands raised, Michal Kwiatkowski's expression as he crossed the finish line in Siena appeared considered rather than delighted.

Not only was he realising he had just won Strade Bianche, he had also outfoxed one of the pre-race favourites, Cannondale's Peter Sagan.

Strade Bianche does not have the years behind it to be legitimately considered a Classic of the cycling season. But by any other standard, this beautiful race deserves its place among the landmarks of the spring.

For multiple sections, its steep climbs are marked by jarring, dusty, white gravel roads. The cold reality of top-level racing contrasting sublimely with the warmth of the Tuscan countryside bathed in late afternoon sunshine.

For Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Kwiatkowski, it was on the narrow final ascent into the imposing streets of old Siena where he made his winning move.

With under one kilometre to go, Sagan drove just ahead of his riding partner for the previous 20, but soon slowed, his tiring legs betraying him. The alert Kwiatkowski pounced, racing away from Sagan's half-hearted attempt to keep up, into medieval Piazza del Campo and to his moment of victory.

Kwiatkowski was quick post-race to praise how his team "were so good today, we had five riders in the front with 50km to go and controlled the race," as reported by Cycling News' Daniel Benson.

The Polish champion's win followed up last month's overall success at Volta ao Algarve in which he also took two stages, in addition to first at the Mallorcan race Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana. After Niki Terpstra topped the Tour of Qatar and the successful marker laid down by Tom Boonen last weekend at Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, Kwiatkowski has more than continued OPQS' excellent start to 2014.

The last couple of seasons have seen the 23-year-old increasingly contending for some of cycling's most prestigious titles. His team-mate Mark Cavendish was not shy in his praise of what had been achieved in Italy:

Sagan's Cannondale have not yet settled into a winning routine this year. His stage-four win in the Tour of Oman being the only addition to their collective palmares thus far.

The Slovakian will be at least slightly disappointed at missing out again at Strade Bianche, though. Team-mate Moreno Moser winning it made last year's second tolerable. The 2014 edition will be less fondly recalled. Still, more is undoubtedly to come for the talented men in green and their superstar.

Kwiatkowski and Sagan's break just prior to the ninth of the 10 sections of sterrati concluded a fascinating couple of hours' racing.

The day's main breakaway was gradually reeled in, with Angelo Pagani of Bardiani-CSF chancing his luck with a solo escape on one of the toughest inclines at just over 50 km to go. Diego Rosa of Androni Giocattoli caught up but soon tasted gravel after taking a corner too quickly.

A big group quickly amassed around Pagani within the last 30, but OPQS' Matteo Trentin broke free from its right side to test them further. Andrey Amador (Movistar), Cadel Evans (BMC), Simon Geschke (Giant-Shimano), Ian Stannard (Sky) and Angel Vicioso (Katusha) made their way across, but the pull of the chasing men proved too much to resist.

With the likes of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) and two-time former winner Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) among those at the front, Strade Bianche was still alive with possibility at this point.

Instead, the eventual top two made the move that killed off the hopes of their rivals.

For most of them, attentions will now turn to Tirreno-Adriatico, starting this Wednesday. For others, it is Sunday's Roma Maxima, or perhaps Paris-Nice, beginning the same day.

Whatever each rider's next destination, the cycling season is well and truly underway. Through the travails to come, Kwiatkowski alone can warm himself with memories of a winning day under the Tuscan sun.

The tour de France has started to get serious as the race leaves the flat lands and moves into the foothills of the Alps, providing us with a wonderful hors d’oeuvre of the action to come over the next few days.

Stage Seven takes in three category two climbs, including a mountain-top finish at the ski station at Les Rousses. It should have been the first real test for the riders, but the events of the first three days makes a mockery of that statement.

As has become the tradition, there was an almost immediate breakaway that formed around the leader of the climbing points and wearer of the polka dot jersey, Jerome Pineau of team Quick Step and German champion Christian Knees of Milram.

Pineau continued to amass climbing points as the other members of the breakaway simply let him go. At one point, the lead was up over eight minutes, however, as has been the case throughout this year’s tour, the peloton gradually reeled the leaders in.

At the back of the peloton, a different story was unfolding as the sprinters slowly became unhitched and started their battle to avoid the elimination time cutoff.

One of the first to break loose at the back was Robbie McEwen who was suffering thanks to a quite remarkable incident at the conclusion of yesterday’s Stage Six.

As Mark Cavendish crossed the line to win the stage, a cameraman leaped out from behind the barrier to chase him, but leaped straight into the path of McEwen who was still travelling at 60 km/h and was thrown over the handlebars to land on the very same hip that he hurt in his Stage Two fall.

The penultimate climb of the day, over the Col de la Croix de la Serra mountain pass, shattered the peloton with riders attacking a falling behind with a lot of energy being expended to survive the climb whilst the nagging certainty of a second, almost identical, climb still awaits the riders.

The final climb of the day, up to the peak of Les Rousses was where the stage was finally sorted out. Sylvain Chavanel went out hard to join his teammate Pineau; however the climb and pressure of maintaining the breakaway had proved too much for the Frenchman who had started to slip back.

None of the main players were particularly phased by the climb, but nor did they consider Chavanel’s lead worthy of expending too much energy trying to bring him back into the fold. Regardless, it will be a significantly different leader board at the conclusion of today’s stage.

It became increasingly clear that the GC contenders were thinking ahead to the next three stages through the Alps, whereas Chavanel and young Spaniard and tour debutante, Rafael Valls Ferri of Footon Servetto, fought it out for the stage victory.

Chavanel prevailed to take out his second stage in this year’s race by almost a full minute and he reclaimed the Maillot Jaune, with Fabian Cancellara finishing over 14 minutes behind. The GC leader board is starting to get cleared out and the big guns are starting to crowd the top ten places, with only Arstrong sitting outside of the top ten in 14th place.

Tomorrow’s stage hits the serious mountains, with the first two category one climbs of this year’s Tour. That will really sort out the pretenders.

Standings after Stage Seven

1. CHAVANEL S.          33h 01' 23"
2. EVANS C.               01' 25"
3. HESJEDAL R.           01' 32"
4. SCHLECK A.            01' 55"
5. VINOKOUROV A.       02' 17"
6. CONTADOR A.          02' 26"
7. VAN DEN BROECK J.  02' 28"
8. ROCHE N.                02' 28"
9. VAN SUMMEREN J.    02' 33"
10. MENCHOV D.          02' 35"

Stage two of the 2010 Tour de France was a 194km jaunt through Belgium from Brussels to Spa. Unusually early in the tour, the riders will face some hilly terrain with a scattering of category three and four climbs—nothing to challenge the genuine climbers in the field, but sufficient to knock the wind out of the sprinters.

HTC’s Adam Hansen was forced to withdraw from the race after his superhuman effort in the first stage. It was confirmed overnight that Hansen had indeed broken his collarbone as suspected making his recovery from his stage one crash even more remarkable. 

Xavier Florencio of Cervelo was the only other rider missing from the stage start, reducing the field to 194 riders.

Given the number of crashes in the closing stages of the first stage, there would have been a number of very sore bodies. Most prominent of these was Astana’s Alberto Contador, who received a nasty whack on the leg, although the reigning champion refused to concede any discomfort.

Predictably, the breakaway came almost immediately after the start of the race proper and a group of eight riders, including Quick Step’s team leader Sylvain Chavanel headed out, but weren’t allowed to extend much more than a three minute gap on the main field.

While the breakaway shared the sprint and king of the mountain points between them, the main field were content just to keep the leaders within striking distance.

Team Saxo Bank, protecting Tour leader Fabian Cancellara, took up making the pace at the head of the field. Jens Voigt and Stuart O’Grady, in what has become a customary position established their presence off the front of the peleton, forcing the pace when necessary.

O’Grady, the nuggetty Australian, is starting his 14th Tour—passing the record for most starts by an Aussie that was set by compatriot Phil Anderson.

As the skies darkened and rain began to fall, the conditions started to wreak havoc on a number of riders with a crash towards the back of the main bunch. Most riders managed to get going, but Mikael Delage of Omega Pharma-Lotto suffered a nasty cut to the face and was forced to abandon the tour.

That was just the beginning of the carnage. The wet roads and steep, tight descent of the Cote de Stockeu saw a number of crashes claiming leaders from many teams, including one of the Tour favourites, Andy Schleck of Saxo Bank and stage one winner Alessandro Pettacchi.

Schleck dropped around three minutes on the peleton and looked like he was in a bit of trouble, but seemed to get his rhythm back fairly quickly.

The disruption of the crashes—including one of the camera bikes which skidded gracefully into the trees—shattered the cohesion of the peleton which fragmented and lost pace, letting the leading pair of Chavanel and Jurgen Roelandts of Omega Pharma-Lotto extend their lead to a minute and a half, before Chavanel decided to try things for himself.

The peleton reformed with 15km to go, after allowing Andy Schleck and his team to re-join, and set about trying to bring Sylvain Chavanel.

Fabian Cancellara gave a quality demonstration of what the Tour de France is all about—teamwork. Although he may have been able to retain the race leader’s yellow jersey for a few more days, he sacrificed the opportunity to chase the leader to keep the jersey, in favour of cruising to allow his more fancied teammate to re-join the bunch.

It also highlighted another curious facet of professional cycling, that other teams—normally the fiercest competitors—took the collective decision to neutralise the race so that no one could capitalise on the misfortune of others. They all want to win, but they want to beat their opposition on fair terms.

Besides, as the cliché goes, you cannot win the Tour de France in the first week, but you can certainly lose it.

Sylvain Chavanel maintained his lead to claim the stage and the yellow jersey as Tour leader.

The main bunch arrived in remarkable fashion with the riders refusing to sprint in protest at the condition of the roads on the stage and a very animated Fabian Cancellara arguing for the the entire stage to be neutralised and the standings after the previous stage to be reinstated.

It will be interesting to see the outcomes as this is discussed after the race. It will be equally interesting to see if the reverse would happen in the Saxo Bank team are leading and Astana or Radioshack riders crashed and need nursing through to the finish.

While most riders seemed to have survived, the cobblestone roads facing the riders tomorrow will challenge those riders feeling the effects and carrying minor injuries. Looks like we’re in for another exciting stage.

Standings after Stage Two

1.     CHAVANEL Sylvain      QUICK STEP         10h 01' 25"  
2.     CANCELLARA Fabian     TEAM SAXO BANK     + 02' 57"
3.     MARTIN Tony         TEAM HTC - COLUMBIA     + 03' 07"
4.     MILLAR David         GARMIN – TRANSITIONS+ 03' 17"
5.     ARMSTRONG Lance     TEAM RADIOSHACK     + 03' 19"
6.     THOMAS Geraint     SKY PRO CYCLING    + 03' 20"
7.     CONTADOR Alberto     ASTANA         + 03' 24"
8.     LEIPHEIMER Levi     TEAM RADIOSHACK     + 03' 25"
9.     BOASSON HAGEN Ed.     SKY PRO CYCLING     + 03' 29"
10.     GERDEMANN Linus     TEAM MILRAM         + 03' 32"

Alberto Contador might have been dishing out pain on his climbing competition in Spain last week, but it passed with barely any notice, because the real attention was in France.

Leading up to the 107th edition of the world's most demanding and most famous one-day race, Paris-Roubaix, Tom Boonen (of Team QuickStep) had a lot riding on his shoulders. Having won this historic race twice in the past, he had the opportunity to join an elite group of three-time winners of the "Hell of the North." 

Why do they call it the "Hell of the North?" As hard and demanding as last week's Tour of Flanders may have been, with its 20 cobbled climbs that resembled walls, the history of toughness of Paris-Roubaix goes unmatched in the world of cycling.

Although the race's 260 kilometers are completely flat, it is made the sport's most challenging race with 27 distinct sections of cobblestones which comprise a total of 52 kilometers of bone-shattering, crash-inducing hell.

Add to that the fact that the cobbles are constantly covered with dirt and dust that quickly turns into mud if it rains, and you have a race that requires tremendous experience, skill, and luck to win. 

Being the strongest cyclist of the day is only part of the equation. Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo) said last week in an interview about the Tour of Flanders that "The strongest guy always wins here, because this race is that hard." 

That does not always apply to Paris-Roubaix. This year was a perfect example of how wrecks on the treacherous surface lead to wrecks that lay waste to riders. Crashes and mechanical problems are a fact of life here, and this year, virtually every single contender with a realistic shot for the win suffered at least one crash and one mechanical problem during the day.

Boonen, for example, crashed partway through the race on the slippery cobbles, plus had to change bikes twice. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) crashed twice on the cobbles, as did other favourites such as Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank), Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo), George Hincapie (Columbia), Filippo Pozzato (Katusha), and Leif Hoste (Silence-Lotto); and that's just naming a few. Barely half of the 200 racers to start the day actually finished the race.

The pack stayed together for roughly half the total distance today, as this contest is much too hard to go off the front alone very far from the finish line. 

But that does not mean that the peloton physically held fast, though, as in a normal race. The brutal and relentless attrition that the cobbles inevitably induce sent riders flying off the back, sometimes literally, and riders went down on the paved stones, ran off the roads, and sent their bikes catapulting into ditches. 

One of the biggest initial favourites, George Hincapie (Columbia), suffered a crash and mechanical problem and could not rejoin the leading group.

Hincapie's story with Paris-Roubaix can be described almost like a war tale. Although he has more experience and knowledge of how to win this race than anyone in the peloton, his incessant bad luck over the past decade has prevented him from attaining the top spot on the podium, and this year simply continued the trend.

The race started to break up when Boonen launched an attack roughly 50 kilometers from the finish, dragging with him Pozzato, Flecha, Hushovd, Hoste, and Johann Van Summeren (also of Silence-Lotto).

This elite group left the rest of the riders for dead as they scorched the rest of the cobbled sectors of the race. 

Even this bunch, though, could not escape all the perils of the course. Boonen had a quick bike change to prepare for the rest of the race, and Hoste, Flecha, Hushovd all had untimely crashes.

Hushovd's crash came at a critical point of the race: He and Boonen escaped from the group with roughly 20 kilometers to go, but as the duo rounded one of the cobbled 90-degree corners, Hushovd overshot and ran into a barrier, leaving Boonen to charge on by himself.

At this point in the race, the Belgian-born Boonen had a slim 10-second lead over Pozzato, but with barely 10 kilometers to go, he dug in deep and hoped for no crashes as he blazed to the finish. 

Boonen entered the historical finish at the Roubaix Velodrome alone and soloed to his third victory in the race, becoming part of a select fraternity of only seven past riders who have accomplished the feat. 

Pozzato came in alone as well 47 seconds behind and finished second, while Hushovd outsprinted Hoste for the third podium spot.

Boonen's superior skill in navigating the cobblestones and reading the race situation allowed him to capture his third win in what is arguably the hardest one-day race of the year. At only 28 years old, he still has time to win even more in the future.

CompetitiveCyclist.com says, "What's more important than the Tour of Flanders?  Nothing, nothing at all."  It is a race with "ceaseless violence, causing the hardest of hard-men to reel."

The Tour of Flanders has long been known as one of the hardest races in all of cycling. 

The Tour de France?  With a strong team to help you, you really only need to exhaust yourself up a few of the key mountain stages and time trials, comprising barely a third of the total number of days in the event.

Milano-Sanremo, the challenging 300-kilometer Classic last month?  It doesn't come close to the sheer brutality of the cobblestone climbs in Flanders with the gradients of walls.  In fact, several of the famous climbs in this race, called Muurs, literally means "the wall."

There is no hiding in this race: either you are strong on the cobblestone climbs or you aren't.  For this reason, the Belgian people and many others in Europe consider this, along with its cobble-stoned French counterpart, Paris-Roubaix, to be cycling's most demanding races.

One man, Stijn Devolder of team QuickStep, has proven for the second year in a row that he is cycling's strongest cobblestone rider by taking another victory in the 260-kilometer event.

His teammate Tom Boonen was viewed as the overwhelming favourite at the start of the race, having won the race twice in the past.  The race, however, unfolded in a way that made it impossible for Boonen to win.

Throughout the race, the other big favourite, Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) heavily marked Boonen's wheel, described by Boonen at the end of the race as a "shadow."  With an equally strong competitor following your every move, Boonen could not escape the group.

In the first hours of riding, the pace was extremely high before reaching the cobbled climbs, and it took a full 125 kilometers before a small group of Wim De Vocht (Vacansoleil), Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas), Sebastien Turgot (Bouygues Telecom) and Filip Meirhaeghe (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) broke away.

The pack began ravanously reeling them in after the first few of almost 20 climbs in total.

Boonen and Pozzato put in an attack and distanced themselves from the peloton, looking like they could have made an advantage, but a lack of cooperation quickly brought the pack back on them as well.

Boonen's right-hand lieutenant Sylvain Chavanel then put in a counter-attack and with Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas) gained 40 seconds on the peloton for himself.

This attack also proved to be futile.  The next and final attack, though, was no joke.

In an almost carbon copy of last year's race, Stijn Devolder put in attack up the Muur de Gramont, about 20 kilometers from the finish line, dug in hard, and soloed to victory a minute ahead of the rest of the fragmented peloton.

Cervelo's Heinrich Haussler escaped from the peloton in the finale as well to garner second place, in what has been an exceptional season for the German rider who has captured several key placings at Milano-Sanremo and the Tour of Qatar.  Silence Lotto's Phillipe Gilbert sprinted for third place.

The powerhouse QuickStep team played its multiple cards perfectly once again.  With their main leader Tom Boonen unable to shake off his "shadow" and Chavanel unable to put in the perfect attack, Devolder was, for the second year in a row, allowed to leave Boonen behind and show off his form and talent in front of his Belgian people.

The Classics continue this week.  On Wednesday is Gent-Wevelgum, a relatively flat but tough sprinters' classic.  On Sunday April 12, though, is the ultimate monument-race of cycling, Paris-Roubaix.  Defending champion Boonen will be putting all his cards on the line for third win at cycling's most challenging cobbled race.