Tour of Flanders: Cancellara demolishes Boonen!

The 94th edition of the Ronde van Vlaanderen turned out as expected with Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen dominating the rest. However, the Swiss champion was even in a class of his own as he plainly dropped the local favourite on the legendary Muur van Geraardsbergen with 15km to go. Seldom have we seen someone so overwhelmingly strong as 29-year-old Cancellara yesterday!

It was Cancellara, too, who opened the debate with an acceleration on the Molenberg, a very short but steep cobbled climb about 40km before the finish. Tom Boonen was the only one who could follow. The duo did not wait for the others to catch up again and continued their effort to set up a true clash of titans. But on the steepest (20%) bit of the Muur, Boonen had no answer when Cancellara accelerated and he quickly saw the world time trial champion disappear into the distance. For Boonen this must have been an enormous mental blow, but he managed to keep his act together and stay well ahead of the chasing duo of Philippe Gilbert and Bjorn Leukemans (a strong David Millar was dropped by these two on the Muur).

Prior to the Molenberg, the race had been uncharacteristically dull. The announced rain did not fall, the early breakway group did not offer a real threat, and the contenders in the peloton were all looking at the two main protagonists. Cancellara's Saxo Bank team controlled the pace on many climbs and that pace was not exactly blistering. So slow that on the Cote de Trieu riders halfway in the peloton had to set foot on the ground! Somehow it was then also surprising that nobody had any juice left to respond to Cancellara and Boonen when they finally went on the Molenberg. Gilbert tried a few times, in vain. Flecha did not have his best day. Boom blew up earlier already, indicating that a 270km race may still be a little too far for him at this stage of his career. Armstrong was happy to be in the first group. And Breschel? The Danish champion seemed to be flying and might have featured at the end, but a mechanical defect and a confused team mechanic decided otherwise. Watch out for Breschel next week in Paris-Roubaix.

Cancellara was obviously thrilled with his stunning victory, which was also his main goal of the 2010 season. Now he has won three of the five main classics, and he is keen to focus now on Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Giro di Lombardia, which feature longer climbs and more Hm than Flanders, Roubaix and Sanremo. Cancellara has said on several occasions that he has grown bored with time trialling and needs different objectives. The Valverdes, Schlecks, Cunegos and Sanchez's of this world better be warned!

Top 10:

1. Fabian Cancellara (SUI, Saxo Bank)
2. Tom Boonen (BEL, Quickstep) at 1'15"
3. Philippe Gilbert (BEL, Omega Pharma Lotto) at 2'11"
4. Bjorn Leukemans (BEL, Vacansoleil)
5. Tyler Farrar (USA, Garmin) at 2'35"
6. George Hincapie (USA, BMC racing)
7. Roger Hammond (GBR, Cervelo test team)
8. Maxim Iglinsky (KAZ, Astana)
9. Danilo Hondo (GER, Lampre)
10. William Bonnet (FRA, B Box Bouyges)

Links:


Cancellara rides away from Boonen on the Muur van Geraardsbergen (PUT SOUND ON!)
Full climb of Muur van Geraardsbergen
Final kilometre