Cancellara emphatically claims his third Ronde van Vlaanderen.
This image speaks a thousand words for Cancellaras indomitable spirit and strength of will in the classics races.
Image © EPA
De Ronde, as the race is known colloquially, is arguably the biggest of all the classics. Some claim it’s the cobbled climbs, notable for their surface and short sharp nature that make the race so special. One thing is for sure though, it’s Fabian Cancellara who has them tamed.
There were three clear favourites for the race before it began, with Cannondale’s in-form superstar Peter Sagan, Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Tom Boonen and Trek Factory Racing’s Fabian Cancellara the chosen trio. Each had enjoyed success at the beginning of the season – and both Boonen and Cancellara pointed to the threat posed by Sagan despite a classic having yet to appear on his palmarès.
However, on a day that had a bit of everything including crashes that put both riders and spectators in hospital and non-stop action from start to finish, it was Cancellara who prevailed by simply out-riding and out-classing his rivals. At 18km to go, he made a break for it and never looked back, fatally wounding the chances of Sagan and Boonen in the process having identified the final two climbs, the Kwaremont and Paterberg, as the weakness in their armour.
Following his break, he engaged in some great tactical cat and mouse, where he took on Belgians Sep Vanmarcke (Belkin), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and out-manoeuvred them to sprint to victory. It was a sprint rehearsed at the Milano-San Remo, but this time came off superbly.
It was a remarkable feat that proved his form in spite of losing high-profile lieutenants Gregory Rast, Yaroslav Popovych and Stijn Devolder, who were halted by various illness and crash-related maladies. As Directeur Sportif Dirk Demol put it, “These are the three that would normally be there with Fabian until deep in the final. We never panicked but it was a tricky moment for us. Fabian proved to be [physically] and mentally strong.”
Excellence.
Perhaps most interesting though is the continued excellence of Cancellara. A renowned time-triallist and classics rider, he has emerged as one of the great cycling strongmen of all time. Actually, this has been known for a while, but with every success it bears repeating.
His record is outstanding: since his first monument victory at Paris-Roubaix in 2006, he has gone on to claim a total of seven victories, seven further podiums and three additional top-ten finishes. In fact, in the last 12 classics he has raced in, he has failed to finish only once – and of the remaining 11 has finished on the podium. That’s some going.
It means he is also now tied with rival Boonen on total classics victories, and is also equal with him, Achiel Buysse, Fiorenzo Magni, Eric Leman and Johan Museeuw as three time winners of the race in Flanders. Certainly, he feels at home in Flanders now: “I’m not the Lion of Flanders [the famous symbol of the region and race], but the Spartacus of Flanders,” he proclaimed after the race.
What price on a fourth next year? But for now, his focus shifts to the Paris-Roubaix this weekend, where he will again seek to match Boonen as a four-time winner and establish himself as the outright most successful monument rider currently still pedaling in the pro peloton.
Next up is the third monument of the season, the Paris-Roubaix, on Sunday 13 April.
Rolling Resistance 