Roubaix, 13th of April – 2014
Today, Tinkoff-Saxo took on Paris-Roubaix, Hell of the North, the most prominent of cobblestone classics including 28 cobbled sections on the stretch from Compeigne to the legendary velodrome in Roubaix. Being underdogs in the race, Tinkoff-Saxo’s 21-year-old neo pro, Michael Kolar hit the morning breakaway and was the first to hit the mythical cobbles in the Arenberg Forest.
Behind the breakaway, the riders in the peloton struggled and practically sprinted for a favorable position going in on the Arenberg section where the moss-covered, treacherous surface caused havoc in the field with several pile-ups. Unfortunately, our young Kolar was dropped on the cobbles and swept up by the speeding and decimated peloton.
However, due to headwind, the peloton slowed down as no one wanted to waste energy in front of the pack, which provided the dropped riders the opportunity of regaining contact until there was a crash in the front of the field including race favorite, Fabian Cancellara (Trek Racing). This situation motivated Omega-Pharma Quick Step to pick up the pace in the chase group including Tinkoff-Saxo’s Chris Juul-Jensen, Michael Mørkøv while Nicki Sørensen and Nikolay Trusov were in the second chase group with Peter Sagan (Cannondale).
It was an unusual big group of favorites entering the final 70 kilometers where a series of attacks from among others a re-born Thor Hushovd (BMC) dominated this moment of the race. Nicki Sørensen rejoined the big group of favorites with 65 kilometers to go exactly as Tom Boonen (Omega-Pharma Quick Step) bridged a gap to a small group of chasers while Trek had no riders in front of the race. Soon after, the Boonen chase group bridged to the front group.
Being unsatisfied with the tempo in the group, Boonen it was all or nothing for the powerful Belgian and he put in a violent pace while a united peloton lead on by BMC and Belkin were chasing behind. As Thor Hushovd (BMC) bridged the gap, Cancellara decided to send a few soldiers to the front of the chase group to keep both of them on a short leash playing a poker game on the dusty cobbles.
As everyone waited for Cancellara to explode the field, Sepp VanMarcke (Belkin) launched a deadly punch forcing Cancellara to respond with Lars Boom (Belkin) on this wheel neutralizing the attack. A sudden counter-attack from Sagan stirred up the race for a while but he was caught with 25 kilometers again along with the Boonen group and the race could start all over with a minimized field including Tinkoff-Saxo’s Nikolay Trussov and Nicki Sørensen.
The big joker in this poker game on wheels, Peter Sagan took off once again and immediately created a big gap to his rivals but Vanmarcke, Cancellara, John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) and Zdenek Stybar (Omega-Pharma Quick Step) were on the chase and the quartet thundered in on the most dreaded section, Carrefour De l’Arbre and swept the tenacious and colorful Slovakian. Behind, Boonen was chasing with Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas (Sky), which meant that Stybar could skip the turns in the front group and soon the two groups merged.
With 6 kilometers to go, Niki Terpstra (Omega-Pharma Quick Step) launched a promising attack while teammate, Boonen could sit comfortably in the back of the chase group where the faces of the riders expressed agony and disbelief. Terpstra soloed elegantly his way to the velodrome and took a beautiful victory.
The Tinkoff-Saxo underdogs delivered a good performance according to DS, Lars Michaelsen:
“Missing our two captains (Bennati & Breschel), I think we delivered a very good performance on the dusty cobbles. Our tactics were to put a rider in the morning break and Michael Kolar managed to find the right moment to launch the attack. He’s now richer in experience and that’s important for the future. Nicki (Sørensen) was showing good form until he was involved in crash on cobble stone section before Arenberg and suffered not only a setback but also a nagging pain in his leg and was dropped before Carrefour De l’Arbre. We had Trusov and Juul-Jensen among the favorites far in to the finale and I think they delivered a solid effort”, said Michalsen.
John Degenkolb (Giant Shimano) finished second and race favorite, Fabian Cancellara finished third.
