ROUBAIX – Belgium’s Garmin team rider Johan Vansummeren on Sunday won the Paris-Roubaix, cycling’s toughest one-day classic. Vansummeren beat Swiss defending champion Fabian Cancellara and Dutchman Maarten Tjallingi in hot and dusty conditions.
Earlier in the 258km race the hopes of former three-time winner Tom Boonen were dashed, on what proved to be a black day for his fancied Quick Step team. Boonen first suffered a mechanical problem in the strategic cobbled sector of the Arenberg forest, the 13th of the 27 on the race, and lost over a minute as he waited for a spare bike.
The 30-year-old battled hard in a bid to close the gap on the favourites’ peloton, only to get caught up in a crash around five minutes later on the 15th sector. Despite getting back on his bike Boonen’s misfortune ultimately left him trailing as the race forged on up ahead.
It means Boonen, the winner in 2005, 2008 and 2009, will have to wait another year before equalling the all-time record of countryman Roger De Vlaeminck, the ‘Gypsy’ who won the race in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1977. Quick Step’s woes were deepened when Sylvain Chavanel, the co-leader after his second place finish in the Tour of Flanders last week, hit the ground hard after failing to negotiate a bend.
While Chavanel eventually got back on his bike, Boonen’s attempt to pull out of the race was stymied when his team boss Wilfried Peeters gestured to him from the team car to keep on going. Dozens of riders were involved in crashes throughout the race, including Australians Heinrich Haussler, Baden Cooke and Simon Clarke, Welshman Geraint Thomas, Italian Filippo Pozzato and Belgian Bjorn Leukemans.
