Paris-Roubaix 2014
Another Hell of the North is in the history books, and yesterday's race can go down in history as truly one of the greatest editions of Paris-Roubaix. It was the highest ever average speed, and this was reflected in the amount of people who had a chance at winning the fabled classic. Pre-race favourites were Fabian Cancellara, on the up after his win in Flanders, the great Tom Boonen, and young pretenders Sep Vanmarcke and Peter Sagan.
The race started well, with a breakaway of eight getting away in the opening kilometres. Kenny Dehaes (Lotto-Belisol) was the biggest name, and he was joined by David Boucher (FDJ.fr), Tim De Troyer (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Michael Kolar (Tinkoff-Saxo), John Murphy (UnitedHealthcare), Andreas Schillinger (NetApp-Endura) and Clement Koretzky and Benoit Jarrier, both of Bretagne-Seche Environnement.
Their lead stretched out to nine minutes at one point, but slowly began to come down as the cobbles approached. The peloton was having a nervous day, with Tom Boonen, Arnaud Demare and Greg Van Avermaet all puncturing. There were no crashes through the famous Forest of Arenberg, but there were a recorded eighteen punctures, making us glad we're not the neutral service car for Paris-Roubaix.
As the initial break steadily disintegrated, a crash approaching Sector 16 had a massive impact on the race. Hayden Roulston, one of Fabian Cancellara's domestiques, attempted a bunny hop on to the pavement, but fell right at the front of the peloton, bringing down his team leader along with a host of other riders. Cancellara recovered, but had to chase after Omega Pharma-Quickstep increased the pressure.
Attacks started to flurry off the front of the peloton, including a group containing Geraint Thomas of Sky Procycling. With around fifty kilometres to go Tom Boonen counterattacked, and soon bridged to the Thomas group. He gesticulated multiple times to his companions, especially after Thor Hushovd joined them, to come through and help him, something the Boonen of old wouldn't have needed.
Boonen's group were now the front group, and the race was on edge for a long period of time as they were only fifty seconds at most in front of the peloton. Peter Sagan attacked from the peloton, bringing Maarten Wynants of Belkin with him, eventually they bridged to the Boonen group. The peloton soon caught up with the Boonen group, but not before Peter Sagan had broke clear in an attempt to win alone.
Sep Vanmarcke and Fabian Cancellara dragged a group clear that caught Sagan, also in the group were Zdenek Stybar and John Degenkolb. Back in the peloton, another group went clear. Omega Pharma-Quickstep duo Niki Terpstra and Tom Boonen dragged themselves, as well as Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins clear. Sebastian Langeveld followed, and with Bert De Backer of Giant-Shimano, that meant two groups were clear at the front.
Boonen's group eventually caught the Cancellara group, meaning there was eleven men at the front of the race. For a moment it looked like there was going to be a mass sprint in the velodrome, before Niki Terpstra put in a huge attack. No one in the group looked like they could follow, and Terpstra soon had twenty seconds.
No one in the group did catch Terpstra, and he entered the velodrome alone to win his first Paris-Roubaix. John Degenkolb won the sprint for second, and last year's champion Fabian Cancellara who took the third step on the podium. Terpstra was a deserved winner after an amazing Paris-Roubaix, and he saved Omega Pharma-Quickstep's classics season, who have at times been all too reliant on Tom Boonen, who didn't have the form today.