The spring classics pendulum swung very much back in the Gladiatorial camp of Fabian Cancellara on Easter Sunday after an enthralling Ronde van Vlaanderen.
RadioShack’s Swiss powerhouse took back his cobblestone crown from the bruised head of Belgian rival Tom Boonen.
After Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Boonen – so dominant in his 2012 clean sweep of the Belgian and cobbles classics – abandoned the race following a crash inside the first 20 kilometres, the man they call Spartacus despatched co-favourite Peter Sagan of Cannondale with a ‘deadly’ blow on the Paterberg to secure the second Ronde of his career in emphatic fashion.
With Boonen injured and second-place Sagan resting ahead of the Amstel Gold, Cancellara is now very much odds-on favourite to net the second Flanders-Roubaix double of his illustrious career with victory in next Sunday’s third monument of the season, Paris-Roubaix.
What Boonen achieved last season – an unprecedented quadruple of E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem, Flanders and Roubaix – was something many of us will probably never witness again in our lifetimes.
But Cancellara’s performance over the 17 cobbled climbs, or hellingen, of the Ronde on Sunday was so brilliant that it made even Boonen’s victories last year almost seem like an anomaly.
The sight of Boonen wincing in pain in a crumpled heap with the race hardly out of the suburbs of Bruges was a stark reminder of how things once were.
Throughout the two years following Boonen’s third Paris-Roubaix victory in 2009, the Belgian bit the tarmac on so many occasions you’d be forgiven in thinking he was following some kind of ill-advised new dietary plan.
Boonen was written off by many before his exceptional 2012 haul – just like Cancellara had been before his return to the top rung of the podium following his own series of unfortunate and uncharacteristic accidents.
It was only a few weeks ago that some critics – on this website even – were questioning Cancellara’s ability to not only win another monument but to win a one-day classic race at all.
He was a one-trick pony who had been found out, they said; his RadioShack team were lightweight and offered insufficient support for someone boasting such a talent; the new generation of riders encapsulated in the cocksure Sagan were ready to hammer the final nail in the coffin.
Besides, here was a rider who hadn’t picked up a win since the 2012 Tour prologue and whose broken collarbone from last year’s Ronde and subsequent heavy crash in the Olympic road race had left him devoid of confidence and bruised psychologically.
It’s funny how much a couple of weeks can change things.
Suddenly it is the sight of Boonen on the side of the road and Cancellara on the podium that is once again the norm.
What’s more, if his victory in E3 Harelbeke was an example of supreme individual talent, the foundations of his win this Sunday – while secured with back-to-back individual blows on the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg climbs – were laid by some stellar teamwork from the RadioShack camp.
With the race entering its key moment with three laps of the final circuit, Cancellara was shepherded expertly by his team-mates Stijn Devolder and Hayden Roulston. And the only time Cancellara was left isolated was when the Swiss had made his final attack on the Paterberg to drop Sagan and Lotto-Belisol’s Jurgen Roelandts.
Yet the decisive move arguably came one climb earlier on the third and final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont. As the remnants of the early breakaway were being reeled in, Cancellara took the baton from his team-mates and put in a huge acceleration on the front.
As dictated by the pre-race script, Sagan was the only rider who could match his strength and the two rode off in pursuit of lone leader Roelandts.
Half way up the long 2.2km climb Cancellara flicked his elbow. Sagan stayed on his wheel. Why would he do otherwise, knowing that if it came to a sprint in Oudenaarde there would only be one victor – and he wouldn’t be called Spartacus?
But then Sagan relented and took up the pace setting. It was a big mistake – for in leading the chase to reel in Roelandts, Sagan seemed to shoot his bolt.
The scene was set for Cancellara to smother his rivals with a pulsating attack on the Paterberg, 14 kilometres from the finish.
Eurosport commentator David Harmon lost his usual calm and delivered a line that may make him cringe in the days to come – but one which captured the brutality of the winner’s knock-out blow to a tee.
“There’s only one way to get rid of Sagan and that is literally to kill him,” Harmon said with the kind of hyperbole usually reserved for football pundits in pinstripe suits.
“Get there and stick the knife in,” he added, clearly taking pleasure in Cancellara’s bicycling butchery.
The race proved one Paterberg too many for Sagan. Cancellara only held a handful of seconds over the summit but as he time trialled to the line the gap soon stretched out to 35 seconds over his Belgian and Slovak pursuers.
By the time Cancellara reached the Flamme Rouge on the outskirts of Oudenaarde he had a full kilometre advantage over Sagan and Roelandts.
Crossing the line, Cancellara looked over his shoulder at his RadioShack team car and pulled out a V for victory – a finger for each Flanders win of his career.
Next Sunday, in the velodrome at Roubaix, no one will expect anything other than a three-fingered victory salute.
The fact that a fist-pumping Sagan celebrated his second place as he crossed the line almost one and a half minutes down on Cancellara says it all, really. Such is the form of Cancellara at the moment, he can make even the Slovak sensation look ordinary.
On the podium as the top three gathered on the top rung for a photo opportunity ahead of the champagne popping, Sagan pointed to Cancellara’s chest.
Sagan clearly knows when he’s been beaten by the better rider – although he’s got a lot to learn when it comes to the treatment of podium girls… but that, my friends, is another story entirely.
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