Niki Terpstra at the 2013 Tour de France (photo by Flickr user denismenchov08)
It has been a cobble season of near misses for Omega-Pharma, but at the Roubaix velodrome having the strongest team finally paid off. It was, however, the lieutenant Niki Terpstra who won the day, not the general, although Tom Boonen wouldn’t be entirely absent. Although the big guns Boonen, Cancellara, and Sagan all had their say, and John Degenkolb inserted himself into the conversation, in the end Omega-Pharma’s strength was too much for the others and Terpstra snuck away for the victory in the final kilometers.
Like at Ronde van Vlaanderen, Omega-Pharma got a rider up the road, forcing Cancellara and Sagan to chase, but in this case it was Boonen up the road forcing the action, not one of his teammates, and it was the turn of Terpstra and Zdenek Stybar to stay in the group and let other teams work (sitting on itself not an easy task, it must be said, on the road to Roubaix). Unfortunately for Boonen, he did not have the form this year and he was reeled back in, but this time, having multiple cards to play worked out and Terpstra had enough in the tank to ride to victory.
A likely aid to Terpstra’s well-timed move was the presence of John Degenkolb in the lead group at the end. Having won Gent-Wevelgem this year he had shown that he could handle cobbles, but he had an impressive ride Sunday to show, along with a 15th at the Ronde, that he can handle the worst of the cobbles and that he will be a factor in the future for the cobbled classics. For the present, however, his presence likely discouraged Cancellara, Sagan, and the others from bringing back Terpstra, fearing that they would be towing him to victory, a fear that was quite justified by the result, and it helped Terpstra stay away. When the group game in 20 seconds behind, Degenkold took the sprint for second ahead of Cancellara.
For his part, Cancellara did not have the legs or the team to double up for the third time on his victory at Vlaanderen the week before, and he was largely a follower of moves, but while nothing less than the top step may be satisfying for him, he again finished on the podium, the 12th time in a row now for him at monuments (at least at ones he has finished, he crashed out of a Ronde van Vlaanderen in that streak), a staggering feat of dominant consistency.
To round out the rest of the Degenkolb group, we can note that Sep Vanmarcke had another strong ride at a cobbled classic, again finishing just behind Cancellara and, this time, just off the podium. In addition, erstwhile maillot jaune Bradley Wiggins found himself animating the lead group near the end of the race, and finished a very creditable 9th, just ahead of Tom Boonen. Now that the grand tour hopes of Sky have moved on to Chris Froome, he may have found himself a good niche away from the grande boucle. He seems to have enjoyed his time on the cobbles and to be looking forward to more.
Finally, Peter Sagan looks to be leaving the classics season without a breakthrough victory that everyone is expecting. His precocious talent means that anything less than continuous victory is seen as failure, and this season, so far, has been a disappointment. However, he did respectably and as he gains experience his results in the monuments will surely improve. The day, however, was not for the giants Boonen and Cancellara, nor for the up-and-comers Degenkolb and Sagan, but rather for Niki Terpstra, who has, himself had quite the tour through Flanders this year with a 6th at the Tour of Flanders, a 2nd at E3 Harelbeke, and another victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Quotidian Velocipede 