Tour of Flanders: Tom Boonen again!

Pouring rain at the start
At 10 am on the packed market square in Brugge, it was expectedly raining, with temperature of roughly 10 degrees and a light breeze blowing. 199 riders of 25 teams took the roads of the Ronde with a delay of ten minutes, after by getting into the much-needed rain gear.

About two hours into the race, a six-man lead group formed, consisting of T-Mobile’s Bram Schmitz, the Swiss Michael Albasini (Liquigas), Belgian Thierry Marichal (Cofidis), the French riders Ludovic Auger (Fdjeux) and David Boucher (Unibet.com) and Schmitz' Dutch countryman Rik Reinerink (Skil-Shimano).

T-Mobile Team on the offensive
The riders were faced with the probably most-feared feature of the Ronde a total of 17 short, sharp climbs, the hellinge. The T-Mobile Team had two riders at the front assisting their captain Andreas Klier at the first climbs – not only to protect him from crashes. "We didn’t want to wait for other teams to attack, but make a move ourselves instead and ride aggressively straight from the gun“, sporting director Valerio Piva declared prior to the race.

After building up a five-minute lead, T-Mobile’s Schmitz took over the reigns together with his fellow escapee Marichal. The other four breakaways were dropped by the pair.

Koppenberg by foot
David Boucher was the first of the breakaways to be reeled in by the chasers with all the favourites. Led by Olympic Champion Paolo Bettini and Milram pro Erik Zabel a big head group formed, including Boonen, Klier and his Belgian mate Peter van Petegem. At this point, T-Mobile young gun Marcus Burghardt and Sergey Ivanov were still in the mix together with their captain Klier.

The key moment came when about 70 km to the finish, Boonen showed his class taking off the chase group on the cobbles in the beginning of the Koppenberg, while many other riders had to get off their bikes and walk.

Shoulder injury forces Bernucci to drop out
Among others, T-Mobile pro Lorenzo Bernucci took a fall in the ensuing chaos. The Italian had to abandon the race with a shoulder injury and was hospitalised in Oudenaarde.

Boonen’s attack helped swallowing the remaining breakaways Schmitz and Marichal and thinned the lead group to 14 riders including Andreas Klier. Hoever, with three Quick.Step pros in the group, things clearly played into Boonen’s favour. Assisted by Milan-Sanremo winner Filippo Pozzato and Bettini, Boonen was ready to make his mark on the race’s finale.

Ivanov struggling to help his captain
Russian Champion Sergey Ivanov struggled unsuccessfully to bridge the gap to the front group in order to help his team mate Klier. At the Valkenberg, the Driedaags van De Panne winner Leif Hoste, launched an attack with only Boonen able to follow. Neither Hoste’s team mate Hincapie nor Lampre pro Alessandro Ballan were able to hold the two Belgian’s wheel.

The other favourites led by Klier and van Petegem also tried in vain to chase the escapees with Boonen’s team mates Bettini and Pozzato skillfully undermining their efforts.

At the infamous Muur of Geraardsbergen, the penultimate of the 17 hellinge, the chasers led by Klier were already 90 seconds down on the leading duo – without a chance of winning the famous Spring Classic.