Category VII Cycling

It’s an old saw that a rider needs luck to win Paris-Roubaix. OF course, some luck riders manufacture for themselves – other times it is clearly up to their manufacturers alone.

George Hincapie provided an example of the latter in the tenth sector of paves in La Pascuale (though it takes place a week too early to earn its name this year). Sitting pretty with three teammates in the decisive break – though curiously all three Discovery Team riders were at the back of the group – and with Tom Boonen isolated from his Quick Step teammates, Hincapie looked to finally be able to break out of his own Roubaix doldrums an win a cobblestone of his very own for the mantle piece. Surely there was no way Disco could misplay their hand this time.

It was at this moment that Hincapie’s stem cleanly separated from the rest of his bike. The South Carolina transplant from New York threw his hands in the air in the fashion of a southern revival, calling upon the Lord to grant him the balance to ride no handed for the final 30 odd miles. No such luck – George dumped unceremoniously on the side of the road, his race done.

In contrast, Boonen’s poor fortunues in the Hell of the North were of his own making. In fact, his strength inadvertently revealed his weakness. The move he made that initiated the winning break, also served to isolate Boonen from any support – none of his teammates were able to make the break with him. And while the focus has been on Tornado Tom all season (and much of last), a key to his success has been the strength of his Quick Step team. Left to his own devices, the need to follow each acceleration, and to make a few mini-attacks of his own, left his legs wooden, and eventually unable to follow either the winning break, or even the main chase. It’s difficult to call failure to repeat the Double-Double a “failure,” but certainly Boonen would have preferred going into his break before the national tours with a little piece of history. Though he may contest the Amstel Gold Race, Boonen is showing signs of some fatique, and could probably use a reasonable break before he locks horns with Pettachi in the major tours. And if all goes well, we may see a battle royale between the peloton’s top sprinters, sparring for the green jersey through to Paris.

The man who did, in the words of Museeuw, “had the lucky” was Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara. Covering the attack by the weakest of the three Disco riders , Vladimir Gusev, and moments later dropping the Russian with nary a thought. Cancellara looked to be put into about as much stress as he was in his winning Tour prologue ride in grinding out the final kilometers of the race solo, and cruised around the velodrome for an easy win. As if any win in Roubaix is “easy.”

But the day of luck wasn’t over. The race commissioners disqualified the first pursuing trio of Gusev, Leif Hoste, and Peter Van Petegem, after the three clearly ducked train barriers to continue their pursuit of Cancellara. The decision gave Boonen second place on the podium, but a decision that provided neither consoled nor even sat well with the amiable Belgian.