8 conclusions from Paris-Roubaix

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Tom Boonen in the Roubaix velodrome(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Life after Boonen for Lefevere

One can picture the scene this morning as a groggy and slightly hung-over Patrick Lefevere awakens; a night of farewells and celebrations ringing in his ears after witnessing the great Tom Boonen hang up his wheels. Now, after months of seeing the clock tick by and the inevitable juncture reached, the Quick-Step Floors boss begins the process of trying to rebuild a team both in terms of Classics leadership but also identity.

It’s a complex time too. Lefevere has already insinuated that this might be his final season at the head of affairs, and with no confirmed sponsor for 2018, the veteran manager would be forgiven for waving goodbye after several decades at the top and little left to accomplish. If he decides to carry on, not only does Lefevere need to solidify the financials but he also needs to rebuild a Classics team without its talisman from the last 15 years. The Johan Musseuws and Tom Boonens of this world do not grow on trees and the easy accession from apprentice to master that took place in 2003/4 does not look like repeating itself anytime soon. Van Avermaet is tied to BMC and Belgium has no other heir apparent when it comes to Boonen’s empty throne.

However, what we’ve seen during this campaign is that the sought after raw materials needed for Lefevere to build with are already in situ. Matteo Trentin, Niki Terpstra, Zdenek Stybar, and Yves Lampaert all have strong credentials, while the renaissance of Philippe Gilbert has been nothing short of incredible. Fernando Gaviria is not quite at the level many expected him to reach but time is still well and truly on his side.

In Paris-Roubaix, Quick-Step used all their textbook plays: building pressure on the front, isolating rivals and having numbers in all the significant splits. That they were outnumbered 2-1 against Oss and Van Avermaet, and that Boonen missed the key break were certainly telling moments, but the early loss of Terpstra ultimately altered the dynamic between the two squads, and Oss was worth two riders on the road. For Boonen fans, there was a brief cameo on the Carrefour de l'Arbre – a throwback to the gallant rides of old – but in the end, the fairytale failed to materialise. Such is life, and cycling will move on. For Lefevere, Quick-Step and Belgian cycling, that starts today. (DB)

Now 31, without rival Philippe Gilbert cramping his style at BMC, and with the self-belief that comes with an Olympic gold medal, Van Avermaet is on a roll. While Peter Sagan has to talk about bad luck and rivals teams, Golden Greg has been racking up results. He beat Sagan in the sprint to win a second consecutive Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, was second at Strade Bianche, won E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem and finished second to Gilbert at the Tour of Flanders despite being caught up in the crash with Sagan.

When he won Flanders in 2016 he did so with a team that included Pavel Brutt, Adam Blythe, Nikolay Trusov, and Michael Gogl – four riders either deemed not up to WorldTour standards in 2017 or in Gogl’s case, moved onto a stage-racing programme at Trek Segafredo. This year, with a more structured and disciplined set up, and without the distraction of having a team boss publicly criticise him, Sagan has been able to train and race in relatively calm conditions. The only problem is that Greg Van Avermaet has been so entirely dominant, and on the one occasion in the last few weeks in which the BMC rider failed, Philippe Gilbert produced the ride of his career to win in Flanders.

However, when the race entered the critical phase and the winning move was formed their leading rider Stuyven was just missing that one or two per cent that separates the best from the very best. When the Belgian was dropped by Oss just a few kilometres before Van Avermaet, Stybar and Sebastian Langeveld took off, the writing was on the wall. Even though fourth place was a fine result - and the best of the 24-year-old’s outings in the senior race [ed. he won the junior version in 2010] - this campaign will go down as a learning experience for the team in the post-Fabian Cancellara era.

Degenkolb looked sharp during Roubaix, and most races in fact, and Theuns became a useful foil after a long recovery from last summer’s accident. Like Quick-Step, the building blocks are there to create a great team, and if they can hold onto what they have, strengthen one or two domestique positions, and ride with more cohesion, then there's every chance that Demol's men can come back stronger. (DB)

Italian cycling has endured long lean spell in the cobbled Classics, not winning Paris-Roubaix since 1999. However, the sight of 22-year-old Gianni Moscon going on the attack, fighting to stay with the lead group and even kicking off the sprint in the velodrome brought back memories of Franco Ballerini’s two victories in 1995 and 1998 and Francesco Moser’s hat-trick between 1978 and 1980. Il Bel Paese seems to have a new Paris-Roubaix rider.

It would be a shame, however, if Martin – or Katusha – were to call time on the experiment just yet. His victory on the cobbles at the 2015 Tour de France showed that he has the basic skills to make an impact on the pavé, even if he has much to learn about the rudiments of Paris-Roubaix (and even if a Cancellara-like, late-career adaptation to the demands of the Flemish Classics seems unlikely). The results have been hugely underwhelming thus far, but he showed enough sustained flashes prior to his ill fortune on Sunday to suggest Paris-Roubaix warrants his attention for at least one more season.

For Martin’s Katusha stable-mate Alexander Kristoff, however, there was little solace to be drawn from another ill-starred Paris-Roubaix, and his Classics campaign ended in disappointment. Monument wins in 2014 and 2015 set a very high benchmark for the Norwegian, but though he placed 4th in Milan-San Remo and 5th in Flanders, he lacked the vim of two years ago, and never truly looked on the same plane as Van Avermaet or Sagan all spring. Still only 29, Kristoff will, of course, be a fixture on the cobbles for several years to come, but with his contract expiring at the end of this season, a Monument win would have strengthened his hand considerably.

“We had a talk a month ago so from my side we don’t need to be stressed,” Katusha team manager Jose Azevedo said. “We will find the right moment where we can sit and talk, but it doesn’t make sense to talk during this period. We need to support the riders and give them the maximum for them to ride their bikes. There isn’t time at the moment to speak about contracts. It’s extra pressure, so we have to find the right moment, so we had a talk with him and his agent one month ago but at the right moment, we will talk. It’s not a problem.” (BR)

But then came the Team Sky years of servitude, and like the proverbial difficult second album, Boasson Hagen has failed to live up to the early hype. There have been brief flashes of brilliance - you don’t win two stage of the Tour de France by chance – but the emergence and domination of Peter Sagan, coupled with a barren few years in the Classics, leaves Boasson Hagen’s career more akin to that of Axel Merckx than of his father.