A lottery was used on Saturday to assign the order of the team cars for Paris-Roubaix. The lucky teams of some of the favorites drew favorable starting spots while the less fortunate will find their cars near the back of the queue on Sunday morning.
"This system is not good," said Silence - Lotto team leader Hendrik Redant according to sporza.be. "A rider can lose minutes if he has a breakdown." His team drew the 22nd position.
Favorite George Hincapie's High Road team fared even worse with a second-from-last starting spot. Narrow roads and challenging conditions mean that some riders may have to go so far back into the caravan for assistance, that they may not be able to regain their position within the race.
Team Quick Step's Tom Boonen's and Stijn Devolder had better luck with their support car drawing a fifth position spot.
Normally, in a major race like Paris-Roubaix, ProTour team classifications would stipulate team car order, but since the Amaury Sports Organisation is holding the event outside of the ProTour, a lottery was used instead.
Sporza reported the starting order for team cars as follows: Saunier Duval, Tinkoff, Française des Jeux, Barloworld, Quick.Step, Slipstream, . Cofidis, CSC, Cycle Collstrop, Agritubel, Milram, Crédit Agricole, Caisse d'Epargne, Rabobank, Euskaltel, Bouygues Telecom, AG2R, Gerolsteiner, Lampre, Landbouwkrediet, Liquigas, Silence-Lotto, Skil, High Road, and Topsport Vlaanderen.
