Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege complete top three
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Netherland's Niki Terpstra reacts as he crosses the finish line to win the 112th edition of the Paris-Roubaix(Image credit: AFP)
Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Katusha) hits the deck at Paris-Roubaix and is then hit by Blaž Jarc (NetApp-Endura)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Niki Terpstra with the 2014 Paris-Roubaix Cobble(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The Arenberg pave was the cause of numerous punctures today(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) rode impressively to finish 10th(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) hits the ground hard(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) wins the 2014 Liège-Bastogne-Liège over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)(Image credit: AFP Photo)
The sprint under the big screen(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Fabian Cancellara (Trek) inks his name in the record books with a third Tour of Flanders win(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The final podium at Flanders with Van Avermaet, Cancellara and Vanmarcke(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The agony and the ecstasy...(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Michał Kwiatkowski can hardly believe he's just become world champion(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The 2014 Milan San Remo podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Lizzie Armitstead (Boels Dolmans) after placing second in the World Cup leaders jersey(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
For the second year running, Paris-Roubaix has been voted the best one-day race of the year in the Cyclingnews reader poll having received over half of the votes. The cobbled classic was a clear readers' favourite in 2014 as it attracted almost four times as many votes as Tour of Flanders in second place with 15.63%. The 100th edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege was voted as the third best race of the year by just over 7% of readers.
Michał Kwiatkowski's World Championships win in Ponferrada was next on the list with Milan San-Remo rounding out the top five one-day races as voted by readers.
The 2014 edition Paris-Roubaix was won by Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) with a late solo attack, after the penultimate sector of cobbles, that took him clear of a group that included all the race favourites. A lack of cooperation and hesitation in the chasing group benefited Terpstra who described the win as a "dream." John Degenkolb won the sprint for second place while Fabian Cancellara continued his amazing consistency in the monuments to finish third; the 12th race in succession where he finished third or better.
The only other race to receive more than 10% of the vote, Cancellara won back-to-back Tour of Flanders' a week before Roubaix after a thrilling finale and final sprint in which the Swiss rider beat Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and Sep Vanmarcke (Belkin) to the line.
The trio were joined by Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step) after Cancellara and Vanmarcke had forced a selection on the Kwaremont but the experience of Cancellara was telling as he feigned exhaustion to receive a free ride from Vanmarcke before pulling away and adding a third trophy to the cabinet.
Just one women's race made it into the top ten this year with Ronde van Drenthe being voted the ninth best one-day race with 1.28% of the vote. The opening round of the women's World Cup was won by Lizzie Armitstead (Boels Dolmans) who out-smarted Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) in the two-woman sprint finale.
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