2006 Paris Roubaix Shows George Hincapie How It Got It's Nickname

No matter what they call it, "The Hell of the North" or "The Queen of the Classics", the Paris-Roubaix race never ceases to offer bizarre enertainment value year after year. This year was no different. Poor George Hincapie - this was his year. He looked incredibly strong for the first part of the race and team Discovery rode a strategically perfect race. 17 riders in the break after the forest in Arenberg with three riders from Discovery and a very isolated World Champion Tom Boonen without another team mate in site. Then in one of the cobbled sections it looked as if Hincapie stood up on the bike. Next thing you know George is in the middle of one huge "oh shit!" moment. He veared off the rode with the bike out of control and then flipped end-over- end.

That left Leif Hoste and Vladimir Gusev for Discovery along with Boonen and Pete Van Petegem and the rest of the group. Well it turned out that one of the rest of the group (Fabian Cancellara of CSC) took an early break and managed to stay away from the group. Cancellara remained strong and turned into the velodrome alone for a very nice solo victory lap for the win. Next to enter the velodrome were Van Petegem and the two Discovery boys. Van Petegem ran up the banking trying to split the Discovery riders, but in the end he wasn't strong enough for Hoste who came around him. So then it was Hoste, Van Petegem and Gusev over the line. Next came Boonen sprinting hard for 5th to live up to his World Champion status.

Then in another bizarre twist, Jean Marie Leblanc disqualifies 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers Hoste, Van Petegem and Gusev for blowing through a closed rail road crossing. So it ends up with Cancellara for the win and Boonen 2nd.

In the follow-up interview Johan Bruyneel indicated Hincapie had a small crash near the start of the race prior to his catastrophic failure later on. The comentators were saying his handlebars snapped, but it looked to me like the whole steerer tube snapped. Really bad luck for George Hincapie - this was his year.

If you don't know about Paris-Roubaix, it is probably the single most punishing one day race on the pro calendar. With 27 cobbled sections totalling almost 53 km of cobbled riding, and a total race distance of 259 km it is a brutal race. Whether in throat choking dry conditions or slippery and treacherous mud, the Hell of the North always lives up to it's name.

I'll be rooting for you next year George!


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