10 april 2011
Paris-Roubaix
On Sunday April the 10th
the World Tour Classic Paris-Roubaix took place. The race starts on
the outskirts of Paris in Compiègne and brings the riders
over a distance of 258 kilometres to Roubaix. The
race route
took the riders over 27 cobbled sections.
With about 138 kilometres
to go in the race, eight riders a breakaway group of eight led the
race. These were Elimer, Engoulvent, Veilleux, Seubert, Boucher,
Oliveira, Rabobank rider Maarten Tjallingii and Koen's teammate
Mitchell Docker.
At that point Koen
together with German sprinter Andre Greipel, the Slovenian Stangelj
and Frenchman Boucher (who had fallen back from the leading group)
broke away from the peloton and bridged up to the leaders.
With about 95 kilometres
to go, there were ten breakaway riders, with one rider dropping off
the pace. The ten had an advantage of almost three minutes on the
peloton.
Photo: Teammattes
Mitchell Docker and Koen de Kort in the leading group (with thanks
to Cor Vos)
The peloton
increased the tempo ahead of the cobbled section at the forest at
Wallers. With 88 kilometres to go, the group's advantage was 2.10
minutes.
Two kilometres
later the leading group started the Forest of Wallers cobbled
section. Behind under the impulse of Lars Boom the peloton entered
the cobbled section.
Elmiger and
Tjallingii were the first of the breakaway group to leave the
forest cobbles. The leading riders quickly regrouped and the ten
soon had an advantage of 1/50 minutes on the peloton where race
favourite Tom Boonen was left behind due to a crash, and with seven
riders including Boom trying to break away.
With the following
cobbled section, Milonfosse, the advantage was 1.10 minutes on the
first chasing group, with 80 kilometres left to go in the
race.
The chasing group
was made up of Lars Boom, Jurgen Roelandts, Frederic Guesdon,
Matthew Haymann, Lars Bak, Manual Quinziato and Johan Van
Summeren.
With 75 kilometres
to go, the leading group's advantage was down to a minute on the
first chasing group of which Lars Boom had dropped out of due to a
flat tyre. The peloton followed at 1.45 minutes with Boonen further
behind at 2.45 minutes.
After the 14th
cobbled section, with 60 kilometres to go, Tjallingii led the group
into the feed section. The chasing group, 35 seconds behind, also
took advantage of the opportunity to get some food.
With 65 kilometres
to go and still 12 cobbled sections to tackle, the second group
caught the leading group. Two kilometres later several riders froim
the peloton joined the leading group who had managed to make their
way from the peloton.
With 52 kilometres, Koen's group had an advantage of 1.10minutes
on the peloton but the advantage was coming down.
Photo: Koen in
Paris-Roubaix (with thanks to Cor Vos)
The most difficult
section followed with 49 kilometres to go in the race and the
advantage was 1.30 minutes on the peloton. At this point world
champion Thor Hushovd went on the attack and he was later followed
by Fabian Cancellara.
Hushovd, Flecha
and Ballan were the only ones capable of following Cancellara. A
little later Cancellara's chasing group caught the riders who had
dropped off the pace of the breakaway group which unfortunately
included Koen. This was when there were 44 kilometres to
go.
Koen did manage to
stay with Cancellara's group on the next cobbled section. Sep
Vanmarcke, Thor Hushovd's teammate, went to the front of the
Cancellara group and set the tempo until the following cobbles when
Cancellara took over and applied the pressure, leaving only Hushovd
and Ballan able to follow with the rest dropping off.
The leading
group's advantage was till 50 seconds. Behind Cancellara's group a
group of 7 riders formed including Flecha, Koen, Leezer and
Vanmarcke.
With 33 kilometrs
to go, the leading group's advantage had fallen to 25 seconds on
the group containing Cancellara, Hushovd and Ballan. Koen's group
with Flecha followed at 53 seconds.
Due to
Cancellara's group unable to work together, Flecha's group closed
the gap. At that point in the race the leading group had 13 riders
with a 10 rider strong chase group behind.
With 25 kilometres
to go, Koen had to drop off the pace of this first chasing group.
Behind several riders bridged up, including Lars
Boom.
At the front, four
riders including Maarten Tjallingii, broke away leaving nine
chasing and the group of the favourites further
behind.
Leaving the
treacherous and epic Carrefore de l'Arbe cobbled section, with 17
kilometres still to go, the four had an advantage of 25
seconds.
The Belgian Van
Summeren took over the lead of the group at that point. The peloton
behind was in absolute chaos under the impulse of Cancellara and
Hushovd. Boom was just able to follow Cancellara.
The remnants of
the breakaway were caught by Cancellara and tried to hang on. At
the same time Van Summeren broke away. With seven kilometres to go
he had an advantage of 15 seconds on Tjallingii. Bak and Rast
followed at 25 seconds.
With about four
kilometres to go, Tjallingii was caught by Bak and Rast. They were
shortly caught by Cancellara who had got away from the favourites
group.
Van Summeren
managed to maintain his advantage and win Paris-Roubaix. Cancellara
won the sprint for second place 19 seconds later ahead of
Tjallingii. Rast came 4th. Bak was 5th at 21 seconds. Ballan came
6th.
In the group that
sprinted for the 7th place, Mitchell Docker came 15th. Koen crossed
the line in 66th place 10 minutes behind Van
Summeren.
"Sore legs,
sore bum. One blister on my hand and vomited at least ten times in
the last 60km. Still had fun though." Koen said.
Click here
for complete results.
Photo: Koen ahead
of the start of the race (with thanks to Kaitlin
Bell)
