What a Tour de Force for Tom Boonen.
At 200kms his chief rival, Fabian Cancellara fell and abandon due to a broken collarbone. That changed the complexity of the race. It revved up many teams, all that were initially planning on following the Swiss Bear until he would make his move.
The GreenEDGE bad luck ...Tour of Flanders
On the third ascent of the Oude Kwaremont climb the Italian whistle blew to signal that the race would take a new turn. Alessandro Ballan followed by Filippo Pozzato and Tom Boonen made what was to be the winning break and no one else had the energy to follow.
The new Flanders route has changed and was sorely missing an important iconic feature; the Kapelmuur climb and being a traditionalist, I will have to get use to it.
It was hard racing with crashes; Favorite, Sebastian Langeveld's smacked by a spectator is one of the worst bike accidents I've ever seen. The superb GreenEDGE Backstage Pass video shows it all.
As the trio near the end, I knew Ballan couldn't sprint, and Pozzato had no choice but to challenge the full sprint of Boonen. I was hoping Pozzato would have enough to out sprint him. But he looks to be coming back to form, just in time for Paris-Roubaix.
So, a favorite son wins and enters history as a great three time winner of Flanders!
This young fan says it all...
Boonen
(via Twitter)
Boonen
(via Twitter)
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