The morning breakaway is 6 riders getting some TV time, but it is more than unlikely they could stand a chance in a race like this, the peloton is taking it very easy.
With just 7km to the first cobbled section, 2,200m Troisvilles to Inchy is starts to rain, the breakaway has 6’45 to the peloton.
The uneven Pavé, the rain and the unavoidable frequent crashes combined with an increasing pace, starts to thin out the peloton, with 120 km to go the peloton is reduced from 194 to 150 riders, the break has 3’56. But at least now the rain has stopped.
53 km left and the breakaway is over, in front 73 riders. Astana has got Alexey Lutsenko left to help Boom, Westra and Fuglsang is in the group but so cooked they can barely hang on.
With 35 km left, there is 27 riders in the front group, we see the first attack by the favories. It is Degenkolb, now the pace get very hot. Degenkolb is reeled in but the group split up, Boom misses the cut ending in the 2nd group.
Just one cobbled section left, Degenkolb attacks again and Vanmarcke counters, they start to get a gap. The next group is 7 riders, Roelandts, Sénéchal, Thomas, Stybar, Terpstra, Oss and Démare. Boom is in a 3rd group of 5 riders with Kristoff and Cancellara. 15 km to go.
Oss, Roelandts, Sénéchal, Terpstra, and Thomas makes is up to the duo in front, Stybar and Démare can’t keep up.
Boom, Hayman and Debusschere catches Démare just as they enter the Vélodrome in Roubaix. While Kristoff, Cancellara and Sagan is all done losing more and more time.
When the 7 riders in front get to the sprint Degenkolb is clearly the strongest, he wins the 2016 Paris - Roubaix in front of Florian Sénéchal and Jürgen Roelandts.
Evaluation:
Overall:
This was the 5th season win by the 27 years old German rider, 2nd year in a row Degenkolb wins Paris- Roubaix. He also won the general ranking in UCI World Tour stage race Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this season.
The most disappointed riders must be race favorite Fabian Cancellara getting in as 14th having a horrible cobbled season, with only one sort of acceptable result, 6th in Ronde van Vlaanderen.
Out of the 200 riders starting the race only 146 made it to the finish, one of the riders who was injured was Greg Van Avermaet he had to leave the race with a broken rib.
Astana: A top 10 from Lars Boom would have been great, 12th not so much.
The morning breakaway is 3 riders getting some important TV time, very weak break that the peloton doesn’t seem to care much about, they build up a lead of over 8 minutes quickly.
With a rather good team for the cobbles, Astana put pressure on the peloton, especially on the cobbled sections. After about 2/3 of the race, the breakaway is over and the peloton is reduced from 200 to 80 riders.
With about 35 km to the line, a new more serious attack, Jan Bakelants (Ag2r), Marco Marcato (Wanty), L. P. Nordhaug (Sky) and Tiesj Benoot (Lotto), the result is total panic, with a peloton that explodes in tiny fragments.
In the 2nd group Astana has Boom, Fuglsang and Westra, It is Westra leading the chase and finally reeling back in the attackers. The first group is now 11 riders, still with 3 from Astana. They already got 2’34 to the main bunch, 22 km to go.
They don't get to rest at all, after just 2 km, right before the final cobbled climb, Tiesj Benoot attacks again.
This time only Boom and Marcato has strength left to follow, over the cobbled climb they are both able to join Benoot. With just 6 km to the line thay got 2’07 to the next group.
Boom opens the sprint.
Marco Marcato is the strongest on the last KM, he wins the sprint in front of Boom.
Lieuwe Westra had diamond legs today, even though he used a lot of energy helping Boom, he clearly outsprint the next group taking 4th.
Evaluation:
Overall:
A complete surprise win, Marcato was not even considered a top 10 favorite.
This was the 2rd season win by 32 year old Italian Marco Marcato, after winning Route Adélie de Vitré the first of April. With not that many wins under his belt, this was clearly his career highlight so far.
In general the media expectations for this race was wrong, as it seems they were expecting more from a fast engine with a good sprint, but it turned to be a race for the more technical cobbles specialist / puncher types. Only one if the podium favorites made it into top 20.
Astana: A great race for Astana with two riders in top 5.
The morning breakaway is 4 riders, Loubet (Fortuneo), Cornu (Direct Energie), Poljański (Tinkoff) and González (Sporting Lisboa), they build a gap of about 6’30. Astana takes the lead in the peloton, slowly redusing the distance.
With 70 km to the line there is a huge crash in the peloton, amongst others strong riders Jesús Herrada (Movistar), Linus Gerdemann (Stölting) and Peter Kennaugh (Sky) are down on the tarmac.
On the longest climb of the day with 68 km to go, Sánchez attacks.
But the peloton lead by Sky and Ag2R reacts swiftly, a strong rider like Sánchez is not allowed to get away this far out.
The peloton is together again with only the original breakaway in front, until there are just 13 km to the line, then Esteban Cháves and Jan Bakelants attacks, the original break is down to 45”.
After a few km the peloton capture the two, but the fighting continues at front, next to attempt is Nibali, 7,5 km to the line.
But he get caught by Cháves and Jan Bakelants very fast, things slow down a bit and the peloton is together again, now also the original breakaway is over.
On the final lap with just a few km to the line Jan Bakelants attacks again. He must have diamond legs today.
Jan Bakelants wins the race with 31” over Ben Hermans and Vincenzo Nibali
Evaluation:
Overall:
This was the 4th season win by 30 years old Belgian Jan Bakelants, who also won a stage and the GC in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo back in January, and a stage in Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta in February.
All the favorite teams did fairly well, podium favorite Esteban Cháves only got in as 15th, but with teammate Simon Yates 6th not such a bad result for Orica-GreenEDGE.
The big positive surprise was BMC, with no favorite in the race they got Ben Hermans 2nd, and Alessandro De Marchi 5th.
Even though we did see some bad crashes every one of the 196 riders got to the line.
Astana:
The team can’t complaint with Nibali’s GC win in País Vasco just a few days ago and a podium here, but Vincenzo was not overly happy with his performance today, not having the perfect legs to grab this win.
Some huge breakaways are attempted over the first few km of the race, but not allowed to go.
Then after about 15 km it is Luca Chirico (Bardiani) starting on a solo journey. Another 25 km and then Eros Capecchi attacks and soon joins Chirico.
With 100 km of the race behind them, they got 6 minutes to the peloton.
The rain is pouring down
But then the pace change in the peloton, a lot of teams working together to steadily reel in the breakaway.
With 43 km to the line the distance is reduced to just 1’44, no longer looking good for the break.
The rain provides for some ugly crashes, in this case it is Alex Howes (Cannondale) heading for the ground:
16.5 km to the line the last rider from the breakaway Eros Capecchi is reeled back in. The peloton now down to 57 riders leads the race, quite surprisingly Alberto Contador is in the gruppetto 2’35” behind the front.
12 km to the line, before the 2nd last hill a group of 7 attacks, Alaphilippe, Costa, Dumoulin, Gilbert, Kwiatkowski. Martin and Valverde.
Costa overextended his ability’s, fall back and get caught by the next group. The other 6 riders approach the final together some 50 seconds in front of the chase group. Kwiatkowski wins the race in front of Alaphilippe and Valverde.
Astana’s best is Michele Scarponi 11th.
Evaluation:
Overall:
This was the 25 year old Polish riders 2nd win of the season after winning a stage in Vuelta a Andalucía back in February.
All the top favorites ended in top 5, no surprise there.
The most disappointed must be Tinkoff with best rider Contador 42th., and Trek with best rider Arredondo 47.
Only two riders that did not get through today was Tony Martin (Etixx - Quick Step) and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE)
Astana:
A top 10 would be fantastic, Scarponi’s 11th is very fine considering Astana did not bringing the strongest squad to this race.
10/4-2016 Paris - Roubaix
13/4-2016 Brabantse Pijl - 1.HC
17/4-2016 Amstel Gold Race
17/4-2016 Giro dell'Appennino
