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Boonen!
Last Post 04/15/2014 01:23 AM by 79 pmooney. 5 Replies.
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79pmooney

Posts:3178

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04/14/2014 01:44 PM
Pave 2 - chain falls between the chainrings, bike swap, chases for 10k.  It took him  awhile but he got back to the front.
Pave 16? - flats soon after he has told his guys to go and they are opening up a gap.  Has to pass all the guys he just dropped.
Pave 13 - Boonen goes again alone and bridges to a large group.  Boonen splits group.
Pave 11 - Boonen goes again with Thomas and two others.

Mons-en-Pévèle - Hushovd goes.  Boonen splits field going after him.  Break of six riders.'
35k to go - Boonen attacks.  Thomas drags group back to Boonen, but no one is willing to work with Boonen to keep the group speed up.  His group gets caught by Sagan and Cancellara.  Sagan goes and is eventually joined by 4 others.  Here, the OPQS sterength really comes into play.  Trepstra and Boonen are two of the four engines of the chasing group while Stybar in the front 5 refuses to work.

There was more Boonen did but sorting it out from the live reports on Cyclenews and the article/interview of him on Velonews is a challenge.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/boonen-calls-omega-pharma-quickstep-lucky-to-get-away-with-paris-roubaix-win
http://www.cyclingnews.com/paris-roubaix/live-report

The guy's an animal!  Made the race.  Need feel no shame at all for his 10th place!  There were a lot of riders yesterday who could have put half that work in and assisted Boonen to a much higher placing and in the process, elevated their standings from "who even cares" to a real shot at the podium.   And after?  Disappointed but not bitter.  (But didn't have much to say to the reporter who asked if he had the legs to win!)  Tom Boonen has gone way up in my book.  (And he started pretty far up there.)

Ben
longslowdistance

Posts:2881

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04/14/2014 04:33 PM
I mentioned this in the other thread. It was an amazing if futile effort. Remember when Marco Pantani would just take off in the mountains at some crazy time, blow the race apart, even though he usually got caught? The headwinds at this year made it a similar sort of situation for Tom B. I do admire his guts.
Cosmic Kid

Posts:4209

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04/14/2014 05:45 PM
Kinda sounds like he rode like a bit of a bozo......

*CK ducks for cover and dons asbestos suit*

Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
longslowdistance

Posts:2881

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04/14/2014 07:48 PM
ha, that's funny.
Johan Museeuw did pull off a similar move one year, going very long. But Johan's doping was superb and I don't think he had those pesky headwinds.
Tomke rode fatty tires, surely helped on the pave, but I've been waiting for the "wind resistance is KEY" types to blame his fat, non-aero tires.
Ride On

Posts:537

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04/14/2014 09:25 PM
Fat tires are in with the areo folks. Keep up.
79pmooney

Posts:3178

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04/15/2014 01:23 AM
I don't think Boone was ever expecting to do it alone. When interviewed afterwards, he said he told Terpstra it was time to go (with 60k to go), took off, then looked around expecting his teammate and a few others. In other moves he showed clear exasperation that others weren't willing to work. Thomas for one.)

Ben
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