Originally Posted by Timo
Unluckiest rider was definitely Leon van Bon. When the group Boonen, Flecha, Hincapie, Backstedt, a.o. was formed he was there but a puncture threw him back to the group Wesemann. And given work he did in that group and the simple way he sprinted to sixth place he definitely had the form to do well had he been in front until Roubaix.
BTW, what did I see: did Michaelsen realy finish in Roubaix with high profile carbon Zipp wheels???
... contrary to what the OLN comenators stated, Cancellara actually flatted out, he didn't get dropped. i though so, and it was comfrimed by reading the story on cyclingnew.com. just as they said Cancellera has been dropped i could set a Mavic neutral vehicle pulling to the side off to the left of the picture and figured it had to be Cancellera.... that's my vote for unluckiest (is that a word?) rider.. he was looking more comfortable than Flecha and no telling what they could have done as a team... although Boonen did look pretty unstoppable... but Hincapie may have been relegated to 3rd.
must admit, a good ride for Hincapie... still say he is WAY overated and lacks tactical sense... no doubt he's a good rider but a good rider without a brain is a rider that get lots of top 10, top 20 places... being a good rider doen't win you races. tactics were easy for this one.. stay with Boonen if you can... that's it... period... full stop, and he did that so that's good... still at the end, he said he waited, because he thought he would be able to go around Boonen??? that proves he still just doesn't get it... here's a clue George... YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET AROUND BOONEN, unless you crash him... if you want to beat Boonen your only chance is go early or just race for second place.