The biggest and baddest cobbled classic of them all. The hell of the north. Paris - Roubaix. All the classics specialists will want to u[p their palmares with a good performance on this day. Sam Bewley took it last year, but who will take it this year? Anything can happen!
The very first attack comes straight away from the neutral zone. It's Medvedev and Gallego Martin.
A few second slater another flurry shoots off containing 3 more: Babildze, Decouttere, and Lund. interesting that Pokerstars made an early move.
The peloton, led by Hornbach, Lotto, and Bpost seems unconcerned, and doesn't care to up the pace.
They all join together up front as the gap rockets up to 3 minutes. Looks like the final breakaway:
Gallego Martin Decouterre Lund Babildze Medvedev
The strongest on cobbles is probably Decouttere.
As the time passes before the cobbles, their was a change in colors at the front, as the team of reigning winner Sam Bewley start do the majority of relaying.
After dozens of kilometers that that status quo, the leaders hit the first cobbled section.
When the peloton passed through the same section, a group of about 40 domestiques and nobodies already split off the back, and they won't be worrying about it. Their chances of finishing are unlikely.
But that can't stay calm forever. As they come off the 3rd cobbled section, Tom Veelers attacks, with Sieberg throwing down the only response!
He reached the other man and they started relaying together. No real rise of tempo from behind.
That is until there's another attack. This time it's Johan Vansummeren.
He was making ground fast, but a very unlucky time for Veelers. He has a puncture, and the others pass him straight away.
Meanwhile, some minor attrition is happening at the front, as the weakest of the break, Adam Lund, falls off the pace.
So after he got a wheel change, Veelers is 20 seconds off Vansummeren, who is 30 behind Sieberg, 2'30'' of the leaders.
Veelers seems primed to show he is a boss though and straight up passes Vansummeren on the next cobbled section.
Meanwhile, there's another attack from the peloton with 125 km left, Lars Boom. Koen de Kort attempts to follow.
Sieberg is the first mid stage attacker to reach the break.
Finally the pack, still led by Becherovka, decides to drive a tad faster. Not a full chase, but not letting the gap go any farther.
Both chasers are closing in on the leaders as Lund goes backwards.
Veelers completes the bridge.
And Vansummeren follows not far behind.
Their injected pace into the front group isn't helpful to others. Babildze is the next to go from the front group.
Lars Boom has crossed the gap as well, leaving only 1 left in the middle.
With 100 km to go it's Pendelton's who are trying to close the gap a little.
And by doing this they make the first catch of the day.
Concurrently, Medvedev's breakaway ends, as he completely shatter coming off a major cobbles section, leaving on 2 original members in the break.
Behind, Koen de Kort passes him, but then sits up and begins to lose time. It seems he cracked himself during the long chase alone.
Only 70 km left, and 2 more unhitch under the pace of Sieberg. It's Gallego Martin and Vansummeren, who becomes to the first of the mid stage attackers to drop off. He obviously overextended himself.
That leaves 4 at the front:
Sieberg Veelers Boom Decouttere
It's still the 2 Pendelton riders drilling it at the front. They've caught Babildze and Medvedev.
And finally, with just 58 km to go, Decouterre pops, as the last member of the original break.
Almost immediately after realizing only 2 others were with him, Veelers attacks!
But while the action happens at the front, the races explodes behind! Cancellara and Blythe put on the pressure, and a group of favorite stormed away. All the top guns are there besides Burghardt and Vanmarcke!
That is besides Sam Bewley, who slips away with no response! They can't let this go!
In the group they came from, Eisel is doing the pacing, as both him and Breschel missed the split.
The group gets a good 30 second gap pretty quickly due to there firepower. But Bewley has 45 seconds on them!
The full group contains of 9 riders, including one dropped rider from the break:
Bewley is just storming. With 40 km to go he's already nearly reach the Boom/ Sieberg.
Cancellara pulls another dig and 4 men spurt off of the next cobbles together:
Cancellara Franzoi Boonen Gusev
Meanwhile, Burghardt makes a dig to reach the rest.
Behind - carnage.
After Verbist takes a huge pull, Burghardt sets off.
Spartacus seems to have endless power, and he's putting the others in distress. But there is a minute gap to Bewley.
Bewley only has to make up 30 seconds now as he leaves the chasers behind and heads for Veelers.
Cancellara gets a gap and the other decide to cut their losses and pace themselves.
The ones who were left behind by the split originally sat up, but Burghardt bridged and was not going to let up. The group is:
Burghardt Summerhill Vanspeybrouck Nolf Blythe
For some reason Verbist is still pacing in the peloton...
After being brought out to over a minute from the peloton, the 2nd chase is left behind by Burghardt. He closes 30 seconds at the speed of light.
And then there were two at the front. Veelers pulls aside to let Bewley do all the work.
Summerhill Vanspeybrouck Blythe Nolf
It got them working, but they aren't very fresh now.
Cancellara passes the chasers, now not even giving a look. They obviously hit the wall.
Decouttere is now caught by the first chase group. He looked dead, but he gets on the front to pace for Boonen anyway.
Having a cracked rider pace you only slows down the pace, and so the 2nd chase is able to rejoin the first one. Not all bad for the team though. They get a fresher teammate in return. The group is consisted of 10 riders after Decouttere drops off and Boom and Sieberg get caught.
Meanwhile, the peloton has pretty much resigned. The gap is nearly two minute to the chase, and 3'30'' to the leaders. With all the favorites up the road, their team won't work. Vanmarcke still has not made a move.
Under the impetus of Burghardt, Sieberg and then Boom are spewed out the back on the tarmac.
With 25 km to go, Cancellara is only 40 seconds off of Bewley and Veelers.
Burghardt seems incredibly strong today. If he had reacted earlier, he could have easily made it with Cancellara. But he didn't. And now he is left playing catch up, mostly alone, as the others aren't giving him any help.
There are 17 riders in the peloton still. Hornbach have 3. With 2 up the road, it's looking really great for them.
18 km left: Bewley finally cracks Veelers. All those kilometers finally got to the Dutchman.
Spoiler
Alert: From now for a while my cursor shows up for some reason. I don't know why, and I apologize.
Burghardt attacks! Only Boonen follows!
Cancellara passes Veelers still 35 seconds behind with 16 km to go.
Finally an attack from the peloton. It's Sibilla. No one has followed, the other rider is Sieberg, going backwards. He has a minute and a half just to the chase.
Burghardt's attack got nowhere in the end, so he falls back and begins to pace again, crippling some of weaker guys, struggling at the back.
Veelers is now back in the chase group after cracking very hard from the front. That means there are now only 2 ahead, and Franzoi might get a teammate.
Apparently that meant Burghardt expects him to do work, but as Veelers slips to the back, the pace slows considerably. And with 1'30'' to the front, that's not a good thing to do.
Bewley is still holding 30 seconds. It was coming down slightly for a while but now it seems to have stalled.
Veelers did manage to get back and pace for a little, but once Burghardt realizes that any chance he still had of winning was slipping away, he puts in another move on the 3rd to last section of pave.
A small gap appears between half of the group, and it's no surprise the 4 riders left behind were the ones originally dropped in the first moves.
Eisel is still chugging the pace in the peloton. Vanmarcke is just sitting there, resolved to not place. The gap has really gone out the last few kilometers, and is now over 5 minute s to the very front, as a dead rider leads a relaxed group.
7 km to go, just through the last cobbled section, and Cancellara visibly cracks! He shoulders start to rock, his cadence slows, and the gap starts to go out!
Thanks to the stalling, the group of 4 containing Burghardt, Boonen, Franzoi and Gusev is now over 2 minutes back to Bewley.
Sam Bewley takes a right turn into the Roubaix Velodrome! He too looks completely cooked, but with almost a full minute on Spartacus, he looks destined to defend his title!
2 and a half minutes later, Burghardt leads in the chase group, still trying to grind them off his wheel. But that's very unlikely to happen on the smooth floor of the velodrome. he just setting himself up to be swamped on the line.
And exhausted Sam Bewley takes the final turn of his 50+ km solo effort!
And wins 2014 Paris - Roubaix! Victory for Bewley for the 2nd year in a row! He sits up and clenches his fists, what a warrior!
Exactly one minute later, Fabian Cancellara takes 2nd place. He was strong, but he let Bewley make the first move and could never close it down in the end.
Burghardt is cooked. The others line up behind him for the sprint.
Boonen launches, and shoots away while Gusev and Franzoi duke it out.
Tom Boonen gets 3rd place. Not a bad ride for him. He played the wheels right today. We'll never know if he was strong enough to contest the win.
Franzoi takes 4th, a fantastic result for the Pro Continental Wildcard! Veelers did a really successful attack, but in the end it was up to the leader to make their payment worth while.
Gusev manages to sprint to 5th. His team did a lot of work mid way through the race, and like the others, he followed wheels well, and never let a gap too far in front of him.
Burghardt misses out on the top 5 very well could have been the strongest rider today. But the energy he saved by not going with the favorites originally was obviously not worth what he wasted driving basically alone to chase in the remaining kms. This result isn't bad, but it still will be disappointing for Lotto.
About 25 seconds behind them, Blythe leads out the sprint for the secondary 4 chasers.
Blythe 7th, Vanspeybrouck 8th, Nolf 9th, and Summerhill 10th.
Blythe packed a good sprint at the end, but it good to remember that he was one of the original founders of the move that sparked everything.
Vanspeybrouck definitely has the skill to go higher than this, but taking into account the people ahead of him it isn't too bad of a ride.
Nolf is the second Pokerstars rider to cross the line, making 2 in the top 10. A successful day for them, even if they didn't win. It's notable that Nolf never worked for Boonen in the group.
Summerhill was a lot like Burghardt. When they needed to chase he did it, and it cost him a couple of places. Wikipedia wanted a top 5, and they will be disappointed that their streak of mediocre races continues.
11th is Tom Veelers. If there was a most combative rider today, he could very well take it. Superb riding all day, and though he cracked, he still finishes highly.
Sibilla snags the 12th spot as he finishes a lap ahead of the peloton. He was never in the mix to win, but he salvages something with his late move.
The peloton opens the sprint!
Vanmarcke leads them down the back stretch!
But Pokerstars will not let down today. They have Kluge and De Vocht around the outside of Matti Breschel.
13th goes to Kluge, then Zepuntke, De Vocht, and Breschel get 14th, 15th and 16th respectively.
Sep Vanmarcke finishes 22nd. He never made a move, sprinted early, a made a wrecking of his race as a whole. I wouldn't be surprised if his manager really chews him out after this one.
Sam Bewley wins for Becherovka - Kiwibank!
117 riders finish this Paris - Roubaix. It was a truly fast and exciting race.
