Ever since Team Garmin-Cervélo was presented, expectations for not only a successful, but a dominant Spring Classics season began. To date, the team has failed to produce a victor in any of these races; either being caught "out" as in Flanders last Sunday, or caught "up" as they were in the finale of Scheldeprijs midweek.

But with the Queen of the Classics this Sunday, the team remained supremely confident in their riders and of their chances.

“The team is incredibly motivated for Sunday, stated Director Sportif, Jonathan Vaughters. "We did a course recon yesterday and everyone seemed to be feeling good. No matter what happens, you can bet that Garmin-Cervelo will race their hearts out. The motivation is there, the heart is there, the work is done. Now we race.”

Added Thor Hushovd, “For me, Paris-Roubaix is the most beautiful race in the world. As a sportsman you have many goals, my goal is Paris-Roubaix. To race Paris-Roubaix in the rainbow jersey is a great honor and I will give everything I have to honor the jersey and my team. The competition is strong but so are we. We’re all looking forward to Sunday.”

“I'm finally starting to feel healthy. I have had a very difficult spring with this unseasonably warm weather aggravating my allergies far more than usual. I am really looking forward to the weekend," echoed Roger Hammond. "It is my favorite race and I look forward to it all year round so I will try with everything I have for the team. All I hope is there will be a cobble stone on our bus Sunday evening!”

2011 Paris-Roubaix Roster
Tyler Farrar
Roger Hammond
Heinrich Haussler
Thor Hushovd
Andreas Klier
Gabriel Rasch
Sep Vanmarcke
Johan Van Summeren

The 2011 edition of the Paris Roubaix will take place on Sunday, April 10, on an hard route of 258 km with 51,5 km of cobblestones.

On Friday, Quick-Step Cycling Team did a reconnaissance ride on the route for the "northern hell".

"We pedaled for about 2 and a half hours" explains Sporting Director Wilfried Peeters "from Arenberg to the cobblestone sector in Cysoing à Bourghelles. The recon ride was preceded by a car recon on the cobblestones sectors that come before the Arenberg forest. The team is ready. Boonen and Chavanel are a guarantee in these kind of races. Sunday will be a fast race. The cobblestone we saw today in recon is very fast. It's going to be quite a show."

“After today's evaluation of the route I feel a bit more confident about the shape I'm in after Wednesday's fall." Boonen says "Of course, it would have been better had I not fallen. I still have some aches and pains but there are still two days left to get back to 100%. Sunday will be another battle but our team is ready. We have some great riders on the team and we can count on an outstanding Chavanel; after what he did on Sunday in the Ronde he's become a race favorite. There's plenty of competition. I'd put Cancellara a little bit above the rest, but there are at least 8 riders who could win it. We're going to do our best to give the team a prestigious win."

"I'm in great shape" says Chavanel "I hope to ride the best race possible, like I did last Sunday. Tom and I are a dynamic duo, the team is strong. It'll be important to take on the Arenberg forest out front. The new cobblestone section after the forest will make it hard to recuperate. We'll have to be careful, that's where the real race will start."

Paris-Roubaix Roster
Marco Bandiera (ITA)
Tom Boonen (BEL)
Sylvain Chavanel (FRA)
Gerald Ciolek (GER)
Andreas Stauff (GER)
Gert Steegmans (BEL)
Kevin Van Impe (BEL)
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (BEL)
Wilfried Peeters (BEL) - Sports Director

Photo: AP/Yves Logghe

Dominant, overpowering, superior, controlling, assertive, authoritative, commanding, powerful, supreme, transcendent. Somewhere Saul Bellow is smiling, as the use of a single superlative simply fails to accurately capture Fabian Cancellara's performance this past Sunday, and for that matter this past week.

On a day usually referred to as "A Sunday In Hell," the current Ronde van Vlaanderen champion tamed the Roubaix cobbles and made it look more like a Sunday ride in the park.

Instinctively attacking his most powerful adversary, Tom Boonen (Quick Step), who had momentarily paused from his own relentless attacking, within 50kms of the finish line, Cancellara's move was so utterly demonstrative that the outcome of the race was decided in a few pedal strokes.

With front end bouncing like a hydraulically enhanced low-rider and a chain bobbing unbridled as if trying to wrestle itself free from the rest of his Specialized machine, the 29-year Swiss rider cruised solo to his second Paris-Roubaix victory, and in the process completed the rare Spring Classics double.

Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky Professional Cycling Team) were the best of the rest, breaking away late from a tired and dwindling elite group of riders.

Results
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank
2. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
3. Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Sky Professional Cycling Team

Extraordinary Times

Fans of the one-day Classics are truly living in extraordinary times. In 2008, coincidentally after Tom Boonen's second Roubaix victory, I remarked that cycling was entering a new "Golden Age." With trio of riders, Cancellara, Boonen and Ballan, under the age of 30, Classics fans were sure to be treated to greatness for some time to come. And with the exception of Ballan, who has been slowed by some injuries, Boonen and Cancellara have not disappointed. Both are now part of select group of 27 riders who have won more than 3 of the 5 monuments of cycling.

Like most cycling fans of a certain age, I often wonder what it was like when the legends like Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Van Looy, Moser, and Kelly once ruled the Classics planet. But unless you are irreparably nostalgic, cycling legends — perhaps soon to go down in the history books as "the greatest" — are currently riding, and winning, right under your noses.

Other Notables
4. Roger Hammond (GBr) Cervelo Test Team
5. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
7. Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Team Katusha
8. Leif Hoste (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
10. Hayden Roulston (NZl) Team HTC - Columbia
26. Michael Barry (Can) Sky Professional Cycling Team
29. George Hincapie (USA) Bmc Racing Team
33. Dominique Rollin (Can) Cervelo Test Team
42. Stijn Devolder (Bel) Quick Step
48. Bjorn Selander (USA) Team RadioShack
63. Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo

Photo: REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Tornado Tom Boonen's victory at Paris-Roubaix before the week ended. We wouldn't be much of a cycling site if we didn't.

Perhaps our lack of mentioning his win this past Sunday is a product of his seeming dominance in the northern Spring Classics. His favorite status has many of us in the cycling world expecting him to win. But the fact is, this was only Boonen's second victory at the Hell of the North. [I say "only" not to diminish what an accomplishment it is to win even one P-R, but because it really does seem as if he practically owns the cobbled races].

Nonetheless, it is quite an accomplishment for the 27-year-old, which is made even more impressive given the media scrutiny he constantly faces.

"Sometimes I simply don't get it why particular journalists keep on trying to focus on the bad things and leave the good things aside. I was a very young rider when I sort of appeared from nowhere and everyone in the press was happy about my efforts and results. However, when things go not according to plan, they try and write you down."

The price of stardom, I guess?

For fans of the Spring Classics, it looks as if we may be in the midst of the type of Classics "golden age" when men like [Eddy] Merckx, [Francesco] Moser, and [Roger] De Vlaeminck battled on the cobbles. Sunday's podium resemblance to that of 2006, with Boonen (age 27), Fabian Cancellara (age 27), and Alessandro Ballan (age 28) on it, looks to be the harbinger of titanic tooth-and-nail clashes for years to come.

Photo: Leonard Basobas

The photo below has been circling the internet like a viral video. I've got no reason to doubt its authenticity, as the reality of the matter really does outweigh any reason for wanting to manufacture it.

So say you're taking part in a one day Classic and while traversing over 224km you suddenly have an urge, or rather the urge. What do you do?

As one caption stated, "rockin the dookie drawers," oh no you didn't? Another reason to have black bibs.

Tornado squishing around the Roubaix velodrome

When you (and your wife) look that good, how can you complain?

Team or a Group of Individuals?
I read one of the letters to the editor on Velonews the other day admonishing Hoste and Gusev of Discovery Channel for not stopping and attending to George Hincapie when he crashed. The writer stated that if it had been Armstrong at the Tour, every single teammate would have stopped and offered help or a bike. Yes that's true, but this person has missed the boat on this situation and one has to wonder about his level of experience in following the sport. There is no yellow jersey etiquette in the one day classics, where the leaders slow down if the strongest of them has a crash or a mechanical. It's the opposite in the classics, and why it makes them, well, classic. The mentality is that if you are the strongest then you wouldn't have crashed. Do you really have to wonder why Tom Boonen put down the hammer immediately after seeing Hincapie go down?

The train boss, the train...
I've read all the explanations and all the arguments regarding the train situation that occured during the P-R this weekend. Some say it was a strict interpretation of the UCI law, but one has to wonder why the group who was delayed and then passed through those same closed gates weren't disqualified as well. Strict interpretation or liberal adjudication?

A 1000 Words
Once in a while a sports photographer happens to capture a moment which speaks to the humanity in all of us. For those who are deemed physically (and mentally) elite, there is easily a disconnect from those of us who are not. These photos make us realize that we are all part of the same species regardless of our physical accumen. Here's my favorite from this weekend by Graham Watson.

Where in the wide, wide world of sports is...
T-Mobile Pro Cycling Team. Since Erik Zabel's departure, they've been fairly non-existent besides the occasional injury update. If it wasn't for the newly formed T-Mobile Women's Team and wins by Olaf Pollack, the team has little to be proud of in 2006.

Judith Arndt in action

I don't check out Eurosport's fine website as often as I should. If that applies to you as well, the post-Paris-Roubaix coverage is a good place to start.

There's a scrolling feature below the story with links to other coverage. Video from the race is particularly worth seeing; it includes interview with Tom Boonen, his Quick Step team manager, and race winner Fabian Cancellara.

Here's just a little bit of what I learned:
On Boonen's failure to win a second-straight Paris-Roubaix, which would have given him back-to-back Tour of Flanders and P-R successes: "Some people seem to think Tom Boonen has no right to be tired. But there is no shame in being tired. I'm not superman."

On why he lost: "I don't want to look for any excuses, some riders were just better than me."

On the train incident (three riders ahead of Boonen were disqualified for running a train warning): "It was the job of the stewards to stop them. I also would have crossed the barrier."

On his Tour de France plans: "I had to retire from the Tour last year and it's still stuck in my throat. I now dream of winning stages and the green jersey. When I was in the velodrome at the end of the Paris-Roubaix, I was already thinking of the Tour de France."

An old cycling axiom held true for George Hincapie today at Paris-Roubaix; If you have good form and good legs you don't need good luck, you just have to stay away from bad luck. After traversing over 200 of the 259kms, Hincapie's recent failure to win the coveted race quite literally stemmed from his stem, which broke and sent him into a ditch (as in 2002, as a flat ended his day while riding for US Postal).

The stem that failed?
Copyright Anthony Tan/Cyclingnews.com

The car equivalent (I was driving along and my steering wheel popped off...)
Photo: AFP

As for the favorite, Tom Boonen, his failure to win is directly tied to his recent efforts from winning the Ronde. Although he didn't seem to recover as well as Hoste (this year's Discovery Channel P-R bridesmaid), he was nonetheless in the race. Leading a third group chasing back the leader, their attempts fell short when they were held up by a TRAIN! Gee, that "I failed to make the split because a train passed in front of me" excuse never seems to grow old.

UPDATE: More bad luck for Discovery Channel as the official decided to DQ the 2nd to 4th place riders (Hoste, Van Petegem, and Gusev) because of the train incident. WHAT???? Lucy, you have some 'splaining to do!

Wanna take a ride?

"The Queen of the Classics."
"The Hell of the North."

Whatever you want to call it, Paris-Roubaix on Sunday shapes up as one of the most exciting classics in years with the expected duel between Quick Step's Tom Boonen and George Hincapie of Discovery Channel.
Roger De Vlaeminck, who won the race a record four times to earn the name "Mr. Paris-Roubaix," predicts that Boonen will win, according to the Cycling News:

"No-one is capable of beating Boonen. Because no-one there is that well known. The rest of the world doesn't enter the equation. Where are Vinokourov, Popovych and Ullrich? Tell me why they are not participating? You can't tell me that they can't ride across cobbles? Yes, the risks ... but is descending a col at full speed less dangerous than Paris-Roubaix?"

As for Hincapie, De Vlaeminck say:
"Come on, what has that Hincapie proven? What has he won so far? No-one can challenge Boonen, or maybe Van Petegem. He will have to do a good job at hiding, if he still wants to be there in the finale."

Sometimes, I think something must get lost in these translations. U.S cycling fans, for the most part, don't get overly excited over the Spring Classics. But the race Sunday, one that both Hincapie and Boonen both desperately want, promises to, indeed, be a classic. I'm looking forward to watching on OLN-TV at 6 p.m. ET.