Paris-Roubaix

Rolling Resistance brings you up-to-date on the latest action from the WorldTour series.

The 2014 edition was a record breaker, but not for the reason expected. A race that was held almost flat out from start to finish, the racers averaged the fastest ever speed in a Paris-Roubaix race, clocked on the line at 45.49km/h.

Any other hopes for a record from Tom Boonen (gunning for his fifth title) or Fabian Cancellara (aiming for a third Flanders/Paris-Roubaix double) where to be unsuccessful though, as they came in a high-quality bunch 20 seconds down on the winner, Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Niki Terpstra.

Terpstra was majestic come the final stages and his solo break for the line laid waste to opponents (namely team mate Boonen and Cancellara) who are famous for their tactical nous and strength in the closing stages of classics races. Perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise as Terpstra has been very much near the front of many races in this early stage of the season – here employed probably as the first of a two-stage assault on victory by the OPQS team – yet to many he was a smart pick at the bookies (if you were that way inclined), along with other outsiders Geraint Thomas, Sep Vanmarcke, Bradley Wiggins and John Degenkolb.

Testament to the form book, all these riders made it inside the top 10 come the finish line, finishing together with Degenkolb (himself the most high profile sprinter of the group) at the head.

Terpstra beat off the competition with a decisive break, with Degenkolb (left) and Cancellara (right) leading in the chasing pack.
Photo © AFP

On his win, a clearly delighted Terpstra said, “To win in the biggest classic of all is a dream come true.

“[It’s] probably the best day in my career. With three guys in the front group, we were very strong. Tom and I came back in the finale and in the last cobbled section I attacked,” he said.

Whatever happens now in the upcoming one day races, Terpstra will now be delighted with his palmarès for this classics season, a season where there have been four different winners of the first four classics races.

Next is the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday 20 April. Coverage will be live on British Eurosport and highlights available on Sky Sports.

Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco

While the spring classics have been dominating the WorldTour scene in recent weeks, stage-race riders have been getting their racing done in less prestigious week-long races.

The Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, or the Tour of the Basque Country, played host to a plethora of grand tour hopefuls still looking to develop form for the Giro and beyond.

On paper, the race was over as soon as it had begun, though, with Alberto Contador of Team Tinkoff-Saxo winning the stage and in doing so setting himself up for a week-long stint in the leaders jersey all the way to the finish on Saturday’s time trial.

Indeed, here he showed very impressive form on the hilly course, only six seconds down on specialist time-trialler Tony Martin. But interestingly, it’s Contador’s excellent form of late that has proved a talking point with many claiming he is now favourite for the Tour de France in July over the likes of defending champion Chris Froome.

Contador has shown prolific form thus far. Can he hold it together through to the Tour de France? Photo © Tim de Waele.

At the beginning the of the season, Contador himself had stated that he was going back to basics; to ride as he did in his Tour de France-winning glory days, trying to win as many races as possible and use those races as his conditioning for the main event. It’s a tactic that he’s not followed so stringently in recent years since his ban for the use of clenbuterol was confirmed, and it would seem his form has suffered somewhat as a result.

Now, with his outspoken statements that the Tour is his main goal among many, he is at least securing the “among many” portion of his goal. The question now is whether or not he can maintain his condition all the way through to the summer months where it is likely the vast majority of his competition of late will have peaked.

Elsewhere in the general classification were Michal Kwiatkowski and Jean-Christophe Peraud in second and third respectively, while Alejandro Valverde, Tejay Van Garderen, Cadel Evans and Thibaut Pinot all figured inside the top 10. For British fans, there was reason to cheer as youngster Simon Yates of Orica Green-Edge finished 12^th in the standings.