Who is your pick for victory at Paris-Roubaix?

[cthenn]

Absolutely ridiculous from Boonen. I'll have whatever he's having.

I don't know enough about riding over cobbles to have an informed opinion, but Boonen basically stretched a gap over the whole Sky team within a group of like 15 guys? Does that seem "normal"? Boonen has the palmares to be legit, but he's like 200% better than everyone else this year, after 2 years of basically doing nothing. I dunno, it's hard not to be skeptical with so much scandal in the pro peloton...

Also, this race was a HUUUUUUUGE disappointment on TV. VS comes on the air with "TOM BOONEN HAS BROKEN AWAY AND THERE'S A GROUP CHASING HIM AND WE'VE ALREADY GONE THROUGH THE ARENBERG FOREST, AND HERE'S ALL THE CRASHES FROM EARLIER AND WE ONLY HAVE 28 MILES TO GO". Immediately, I was like WTF??!? Then I watched Tom Boonen stretch out his advantage over whole teams all the way to the end. zzz...oh...and no rain, even though it was promised.

Paris-Roubaix FAIL.

[DiabloScott]

I didn't expect it to last to be honest - I thought it was too early

That had to be his plan. He was #1 marked man so a reasonable strategy to get away is to do something unreasonable. Amazing that he can solo for 50km with such dominance though.

[K.Katso]

I don't know enough about riding over cobbles to have an informed opinion, but Boonen basically stretched a gap over the whole Sky team within a group of like 15 guys? Does that seem "normal"? Boonen has the palmares to be legit, but he's like 200% better than everyone else this year, after 2 years of basically doing nothing. I dunno, it's hard not to be skeptical with so much scandal in the pro peloton...

Also, this race was a HUUUUUUUGE disappointment on TV. VS comes on the air with "TOM BOONEN HAS BROKEN AWAY AND THERE'S A GROUP CHASING HIM AND WE'VE ALREADY GONE THROUGH THE ARENBERG FOREST, AND HERE'S ALL THE CRASHES FROM EARLIER AND WE ONLY HAVE 28 MILES TO GO". Immediately, I was like WTF??!? Then I watched Tom Boonen stretch out his advantage over whole teams all the way to the end. zzz...oh...and no rain, even though it was promised.

Paris-Roubaix FAIL.

Blame the crappy coverage you get, not the race itself. It was on for the entire 6 hours on Eurosport. In HD.(My DVR is nearing full now, and I still have to record MotoGP tonight)

He was pulling gaps because he was going faster over the final cobbestone sections. When he was back on asphalt, he would be gaining time because his competitors couldn't go as fast over the cobblestone sections and he was equaling their speeds everywhere else. I admit it gives reason to be skeptical(remember the "mechanical doping" that Cancellara was accused of in 2010?), but it can be done, and he obviously did it.

[guadzilla]

Boonen has done it before - in 2005 or 2006. So this whole "break away and solo for the win" thing isn't unique. And remember - he broke away after 200km of hard riding was done.

[cthenn]

OK, thanks for the clarification re: Boonen Beast Mode. If this was smooth tarmac, Boonen holding off entire teams would have been highly skeptical, but I guess the cobbles evens out everything, and the strongest man rides away.

As far as the TV coverage goes, I don't know who or what carries Eurosport on TV. I'm lucky we get VS, so I'm at the mercy of their coverage. Must be nice to have choices... Problem is the time difference. It's cool that they want to show a live event, but they either have to commit to going on-air well before they did today, or packaging the show and showing it delayed. Apart from the selection already being made, the remaining 28 miles was completely uninteresting, and deflating after a 30 second recap of the vast majority of the race.

[canam73]

Real shame Cancellara is out. It obviously would have changed the strategies, but it could have been an epic showdown. I'm more of a Spartacus fan than a Boonen fan, but that ride today would have been hard to match by anyone.

[bobonker]

Looks like Boonen was rising on some 700x28s. They were balloons, but he got it done!

Bob

[bernardcd]

As far as the TV coverage goes, I don't know who or what carries Eurosport on TV. I'm lucky we get VS, so I'm at the mercy of their coverage. Must be nice to have choices... Problem is the time difference. It's cool that they want to show a live event, but they either have to commit to going on-air well before they did today, or packaging the show and showing it delayed. Apart from the selection already being made, the remaining 28 miles was completely uninteresting, and deflating after a 30 second recap of the vast majority of the race.

If you have a decent internet connection, I would suggest using a website like steephill.tv who posts links to live internet streams. It's always worked fantastic for me. You an usually access eurosport for an english feed

[bobonker]

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...running_212925

Bob

[K.Katso]

I'm lucky we get VS, so I'm at the mercy of their coverage. Must be nice to have choices... Problem is the time difference.

Yeah, believe me I know, I was in the same situation when I was still living in the US. As some of the others have suggested, if you're really interested to watch it then I would suggest doing so via online streaming. You can also check to see if someone has posted a full recording of the race for download via BitTorrent. I used to do this for MotoGP races because the coverage on Speed Channel sucked so bad. The only real challenge is staying away from all bike-related websites and news sources until you've had a chance to watch the race, otherwise you end up seeing spoilers everywhere.

[Giacomo 1]

Wow, Boonen just crushed the competition! A gutsy move on his part, but it really panned out for him.

Would have loved to see Taylor Phinneys ride though. He came in a very respectable 14th place. Hincapie said that Phinney will be the first American rider to win the Paris-Roubaix. Tyler Farrar also came in a nice 27th place, so the Americans looked pretty good all-in-all...

[guadzilla]

I do think Boonen got helped a little by the fact that no one really expected him to do this or his break to stick. And no one really wanted to bust themselves trying to catch up to him, and then face his sprint at the end (on this point, Boonen is spot on when he says that few riders can sprint as well as he can after a really long, grueling ride).

As a result, the chasing pack was faffing around for a while, trying to get the other guys to bluff. That worked in his favor.

Still, very bold and unexpected move - I am sure no one was expecting this.

[Farby]

Also, this race was a HUUUUUUUGE disappointment on TV. VS comes on the air with "TOM BOONEN HAS BROKEN AWAY AND THERE'S A GROUP CHASING HIM AND WE'VE ALREADY GONE THROUGH THE ARENBERG FOREST, AND HERE'S ALL THE CRASHES FROM EARLIER AND WE ONLY HAVE 28 MILES TO GO". Immediately, I was like WTF??!? Then I watched Tom Boonen stretch out his advantage over whole teams all the way to the end. zzz...oh...and no rain, even though it was promised.

Paris-Roubaix FAIL.

agree completely on the crap VS/NBC live coverage. snoozefest watching boonen ride in front for an hour and a half.

[ahsposo]

snoozefest watching boonen ride in front for an hour and a half.

You would have slept through the firebombing of Dresden too I'll bet.

[chasm54]

You would have slept through the firebombing of Dresden too I'll bet.

LOL.

Nothing boring about Boonen's victory if one has any sense of what it took to do it.

[Farby]

LOL.

Nothing boring about Boonen's victory if one has any sense of what it took to do it.

no, I get it, I understand what it took. That doesn't make it exciting to watch from where NBC picked up coverage.

[daveF]

The Schlecks don't ride P-R. It's not a climber's race.

You'll have to excuse him. He thought both Cipollini & Zabel were previous winners of the TDF(GC not green jersey).

[canam73]

You'll have to excuse him. He thought both Cipollini & Zabel were previous winners of the TDF(GC not green jersey).

It's part of his continuing education.