103rd Edition 2005 Paris-Roubaix
10 April 2005 259 km
The 2005 edition of Paris-Roubaix will go down in history for the absence of several old legends and the creation of a new one. The big news before the race was the absence of the now-infamous Troue d'Arenberg. Citing grave concerns for the safety of the peloton, race organizer Amaury Sports Organization removed the popular and frequently crucial section from the race. They then went out and found a 2600 meter cobbled climb near Valenciennes along with several other new sections to boost the race total to 54.7 kilometers of pav. Even without the notorious Arenberg trench, the race would live up to its reputation as the Hell of the North. For the first time in race history, a cobblestone climb would enter the course of Paris-Roubaix. Though it would prove to be too far from Roubaix to provide the decisive break, it provided a formidable challenge for the riders.
This was also the first Paris-Roubaix following Johan Museeuw's long-postponed retirement. The Lion of Flanders, a three-time winner of the Queen of the Classics, was waiting in the velodrome at Roubaix anticipating the arrival of his protg Tom Boonen, the main contender for the race victory after his impressive solo victory at the Ronde van Vlaanderen the preceding Sunday. His Quick.Step-Innergetic team was a high-octane bunch including young Italian Filippo Pozzato, Het Volk champion Nick Nuyens, and 2001 Paris-Roubaix champion Servais Knaven. Boonen was attempting a feat never accomplished by his mentor: the Flanders-Roubaix double, achieved by only seven men in the long history of the two races.
The last person to achieve this very feat would also be lining up in Compigne, fancying his own chances to arrive first at the velodrome. Peter Van Petegem was on form after taking the bunch sprint for third in the group 40 seconds behind Boonen at Flanders. His lieutenant, Nico Mattan, surprised the field to finish first at Wevelgem during midweek racing. Their Davitamon-Lotto team was arriving strong, with Belgian champion Tom Steels, Henk Vogels, and Leon Van Bon also on hand to assist Van Petegem in his hunt for a second Paris-Roubaix.
Defending champion Magnus Bckstedt, riding for the new Liquigas-Bianchi squad, was riding battered and bruised from a recent crash, but in good spirits to repeat his feat from the previous year. 1999 champion Andrea Tafi was competing in his final Paris-Roubaix, arriving at the line in Compigne sporting a special pav-patterned Saunier Duval jersey and shorts. Frdric Guesdon, the last French victor in 1997, was flying the French flag in his traditional Franaise des Jeux uniform. George Hincapie was back again for Discovery Channel, still yearning to become the first American on the podium. 2004 Flanders champion and former Roubaix podium finisher Steffen Wesemann was riding strong for T-Mobile, but had to fight without Andreas Klier, injured in a training accident with a motorcycle after finishing on the podium at Flanders. Fassa Bortolo was showcasing Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara and Spanish dynamo Juan Antonio Flecha in the absence of Italian supersprinter Alessandro Petacchi. Without Museeuw, everyone seemed even more confident in their chances for victory.
Rolling out of Compigne at 11 am under cloudy skies, 191 riders left town. A sustained 20 km/h west-northwest wind blasted the peloton with crosswinds from the start. Cool temperatures hovered around 10C (50F). Four riders formed an early breakaway after 25 kilometers, with a second quartet bridging the gap in St. Quentin. The clouds remained firm and the sky remained dry, and the eight-man break was 12 minutes up on the peloton with 170 kilometers remaining in the race.
With Fassa Bortolo driving the break to put their leaders Cancellara and Flecha into position, the peloton had pulled the break back to under ten minutes as the main bunch reached the first section of pav in Troisvilles. Discovery and T-Mobile are also working hard at the front for their leaders. As the peloton rolls onto the four-star cobbles at Quievy, former champions Andrea Tafi and Frdric Guesdon both puncture. They fight back into the main group after quick changes, now only six minutes behind the eight leaders.
Crashes on the cobbles at Escarmain and Vertain break up the peloton, striking down Peter Van Petegem, Tom Steels, and Allan Davis. Steels and Van Petegem wait for spare bicycles and battle to reintegrate with the main group. Davis is forced, due to injury, to abandon the race. As the lead group hit the five-star Aulnoy-lez-Valenciennes section, their lead has shrunk to only 5:45 and is down to six riders. T-Mobile, Quick.Step, and Davitamon drive the peloton ever closer to the break. After breaking his saddle, Sylvain Chavanel dangles two minutes behind the breakaway and two and a half minutes ahead of the peloton.
With less than eighty kilometers to go, the breakaway had held steady around five minutes ahead for about forty kilometers. Raindrops began to fall as Quick.Step turned up the heat as the main group arrived on the 3.7 kilometer section 14 at Hornaing. Roubaix rookie Filippo Pozzato lifted the pace with team leader Boonen on his wheel. Lars Michaelsen, George Hincapie and Magnus Bckstedt pulled away with the Quick.Step duo to open a gap on the rest of the peloton. Flecha and Cancellara bridged the gap with Leon Van Bon. The eight riders quickly developed the decisive break as the weather turned grim.
As everyone enters section 13, the counterattack group of seven (minus Pozzato) is thirty seconds up on the peloton and three minutes behind the break. Rabobank and T-Mobile are frantically chasing but making little headway, apparently asleep when the peloton hit the crucial point of the race. Marc Wauters leads a second chase group to try to bridge in an unlikely attempt to bridge the gap to Boonen's group. The counterattack works hard, pulling the leaders to within 1:07 as they enter a muddy section 12 at Orchies.
As the five remaining leaders of the early break exit the cobblestones at Auchy-lez-Orchies, the counterattack of six finally bridge the gap, forming the ultimate group to fight out the podium. With Van Bon, Wesemann, and Hulsmans 37 seconds behind the lead group, there now appear to be only eleven men still with a chance to cross the line first at Roubaix. The lead group enter the three slippery cobbled kilometers of Mons-en-Pvle as the intermittent rain let up. The heads of state slowly dropped the early morning breakaway riders. As the leaders exit section 10, they number only five: Boonen, Bckstedt, Hincapie, Michaelsen, and Flecha. Into section 8 at Pont-Thibaut, Boonen drove a hard, steady tempo. The chase group had dropped to one minute back, the peloton was two minutes further back, and the five riders were beginning to assess their chances for victory. The sections of pav came fast and furious for the leaders. The four-star sections at Cysoing-Bourghelles and Camphin-en-Pvle saw Bckstedt and then Boonen turn the screws further. They were now almost two minutes ahead of the chasers, with representatives from the leaders' teams sitting in the break and impeding progress. The final decision would come from these five.
Flecha was leading the group as they entered the final five-star section of pav, Carrefour de l'Arbre, with fifteen miles to Roubaix. Michaelsen dropped back with a puncture, watching the four survivors fade away with his chances of victory. Flecha continued to hammer through as Bckstedt fades back. Boonen drove through as the group pulled on to the next section of cobblestones at Gruson. The three riders worked hard together as they entered the outskirts of Roubaix. The group remained together through the last two unpaved sections, consolidating their lead to forty seconds over the defending champion as they crossed the last 300-meter stretch of ceremonial cobbles before the velodrome. Hincapie led the trio onto the banked oval. The group kept a close eye on one another as they passed the bell for the final lap. Flecha led the sprint high up the banking, with Boonen sitting behind Hincapie and timing his finishing kick. Coming off the final turn, Boonen swept down to the inside lane of the track, pulling steadily away over the final meters to take a superb victory.
Boonen served notice that he is the newest in a long history of dominant Belgian classics specialists. Taking over the inaugural ProTour lead with his victory, Boonen was prepared to forfeit the honor of wearing the jersey in a race to stick to his season program. With his sights now set on taking the green jersey in his second Tour de France and the rainbow jersey in Madrid at September's World Championships, Boonen seemed determined to begin preparations for the rest of his 2005 campaign. Standing on the podium with his former teammate and the Spanish revelation, Boonen emerged from the shadow of his mentor Johan Museeuw and roared as the new Lion of Flanders.