RadioShack’s Fabian Cancellara used his talents to perfection in winning the 2103 Tour of Flanders one-day cycling classic, a brutal 256-km bashing over cobblestones and up 17 climbs, some with grades over 20 percent.
Cancellara, a four-time world time trial champion and winner both the Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders classics—two of the toughest cycling races in the world—waited until the final fifteen kilometers before attacking.
Only one rider, Peter Sagan of Cannondale, could keep up with the RadioShack rider, but Cancellara had his strategy perfected: on the penultimate climb, the Oude de Kwaremont, he pushed Sagan almost to the breaking point, and on the next climb, the increasingly steepening Paterberg, Cancellara kicked hard, dropping Sagan.
Once he had his gap, Cancellara simply dropped into his time-trial mode and accelerated non-stop to the end of the course. After 245 kilometers of hard racing, the big Swiss rider had enough in his legs to hit fifty kph, opening a gap of 1:26 over Sagan by the finish line.
“The goal was to win,” Cancellara told Eurosport.com after the race. “Sometimes you can’t predict how things are coming—I mean one year ago I was on the ground [he crashed in the 2012 race, breaking his collarbone] and now I m back. I won Flanders on the new course.
“It was a strange race,” he continued. “It was fast in the beginning and we had to work hard. We had to take over the race early, and I think that was the key: to do it because there were not so many left in the end. Everyone did a great job—the team did fantastic.
“In the end we came to Kwaremont. Everyone expected that I would go—I tried to make the first selection [the first big narrowing of the field to a few riders] because I had this nice feeling today that on the cobble I can go.
“I suffered on all the asphalt climbs but on the cobbles—I don’t know; somehow I have a special love for them and I went. Peter came with me after Jürgen on Paterberg, and in the end I did what I had to do—bring the Ronde van Vlanderren home.”
Cannondale’s young phenomenon Peter Sagan rode a strong race; he was beaten by only one rider, the master of the course, so there is no shame in second (and it is a significant improvement over his fifth-place finish of 2012.) Third went to Jürgen Roelandts of Lotto-Belisol, who had launched his own solo attack 18 km from the finish.
2012 winner Tom Boonen never figured in the race. The Omega Pharma-Quickstep rider crashed heavily after only 20 km of racing. Boonen’s left elbow and right knee were cut badly enough to require stitches, plus the Dutch rider sustained severe contusions on his left hip and right knee. Luckily he didn’t break any bones, but the severity of his injuries means he will likely miss next weekend’s Paris-Roubaix classic.
RadioShack Rides Hard for Cancellara
Cancellara’s RadioShack team took over pace-setting halfway through the race, with Danilo Hondo, Hayden Roulston, and Stijn Devolder driving at a high enough speed that most contenders were too tired to answer when Cancellara made his first move.
There were several breakaways through the course of the race. The first, composed of Alex Dowsett (Movistar,) Andreas Klier (Garmin-Sharp,) and Australia’s Zak Demptser (NetApp-Endura) attacked only 12 km from the start. This trio was joined by Hugo Houle of AG2R and Kris Boeckmans of Vacansoleil, but even as a quintet didn’t have the firepower to stay away and were ridden down within 45 km.
The next big break formed with 150 km left in the race as Jetse Bol (Blanco,) Jacob Rathe (Garmin-Sharp,) Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Belisol,) Michael Morkov (Saxo-Tinkoff,) Tim De Troyer (Accent Jobs-Wanty,) Kevin Claeys (Crelon-Euphony,) and Laurens de Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen) made an escape.
A chase group, led by Lotto-Belisol powerhouse André Greipel, attacked on the slopes of the Molenberg. These five riders: Greipel, Blanco’s Maarten Tjallingii, Omega’s Michal Kwiatkowski, and Yohann Gene and Jerome Cousin of Europcar, caught the break 125 km from the finish, creating a powerful force—too powerful, as RadioShack responded by increasing the tempo.
The climbs started coming quickly after the first hundred km, and the break and the peloton both began shrinking. By the time the break hit the Oude de Kwaremont (11 percent maximum grade) for the first of three times, only Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step Cycling,) Andre Greipel and Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Belisol,) Jetse Bol and Martin Tjallingii (Blanco,) and Laurens De Vreese of Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise were left, a minute ahead of the peloton.
While crossing a cobbled section 60 km from the end, Sébastien Minard (Ag2R) and Mirko Selvaggi (Vacansoleil) took off after the break.
About this time Cancellara had a rear puncture, but he was able to get his wheel replaced and work his way back to the front without exhausting himself.
It took Minard and Selvaggi 15 km of hard riding to catch the breakaway, but within the next ten km, all but Kwiatkowski, Greipel, and Selvaggi had fallen off, as the peloton steadily increased its pace.
Greipel lasted another few kilometers before giving it up as well. A few kilometers after, another chase group formed: Jürgen Roelandts (Lotto) and Sebastian Hinault (Iam) were first to try to bridge across, followed by Yoann Offredo (FDJ,) Maarten Tjallingi (Blanco,) and Sebastien Turgot (Europcar.)
After ten km out front, only Hinault and Roelandts could hold the pace; the other three started to fade. A couple kilometers later, Roelandts set out solo. He knew he couldn’t match Peter Sagan or Fabian Cancellara through the flat final kilometers; the Lotto rider’s only chance was to open a gap before the really strong riders attacked.
It was a good idea, but nothing could stop Cancellara. When he made his initial move on the final ascent of the Kwaremont, Sagan nearly cracked. When Cancellara fired his knockout blow on the steepest section of the Paterberg, no one could keep up.
Roelandts did cling eventually catch back up to Sagan, and clung to the Cannondale rider’s wheel until the final sprint, which Sagan won with ease. Roelandts earned his podium finish with strong riding and smart tactics; Sagan took second with his incredible youthful energy.
Fabian Cancellara won in 2013 as he did the first time in 2010: by completely decimating the field, riding away on the hardest climb, and time-trialing to the finish at a pace no one could begin to match. The RadioShack rider has to be the favorite for a Paris-Roubaix.
“Will I be picked as the favorite now for Flanders and Roubaix? That’s life,” Cancellara commented on radioshackleopardtrek.com. “The most important goals are indeed still coming but let’s celebrate first.
“We worked months for this. Now I can tackle the other races in a more relaxed way. I feel renewed confidence with this win but also renewed pressure as well. In the end it’s a victory and I know I’ve done my job.”
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