Talking Points Post Flanders

Boonen: He is back. With all the pre hype and favouritism on Boonen and Cancellara, the pressure shifted totally to the Belgian after Cancellara went down in the feed zone breaking his collarbone with 62kms to go.  The complexion of the race changed. One of the favourites was gone. Not just out of De Ronde but the entire classics campaign. Boonen showed what a champion he is recapturing his magical form of the mid 2000s in which Paris-Roubaix, De Ronde and the road World Championships were at his mercy.  Boonen showed not only his physical strength on Sunday but let the peloton know that mentally, he is focused and ready to hurt, to push that little further and cross that line which separates that places on the podium. The finale of the race seemed like years gone by. Pozzato, Ballan and Boonen all fighting it out for the win? Not many have guessed that would be the case in 2012. Pozzato said he was the strongest out there on Sunday but Boonen suggested it that may have not been the case as he was unable to shift fully across his cassette. With De Ronde done and dusted for another year 2012’s edition feels like a two part extravaganza. Boonen now heads into Paris-Roubaix as sole favourite. Pozzato may be up there but how he responses to two gruelling races a week apart on what must still be a recovering collarbone will come to light on Sunday.

Cancellara: An unlucky crash with severe consequences for the Swiss rider has ended one of his two major season goals. Recovering at home after announcing his wife is expecting their second child, Spartacus is looking to return to racing at Bayern Rundfahrt. An innocuous situation proved fatal for Cancellara’s spring campaign. A quadruple break of the right collarbone was the result of a stray water bottle in the feed zone. A few weeks ago Mark Cavendish took aim at the peloton and Katusha in particular after a stray bottle almost ended his spring. As Cancellara said, it’s a part of racing and life. The Olympics beckon now for the Swiss superstar who’ll be looking at repeating his Beijing gold in the ITT and he must be looking to do a double and take home gold in the road race as well.  So with Cancellara now focused on Olympic glory Paris-Roubaix will be Boonen’s race to lose.

Pozzato: The Italian showed that he may be back to best. A change in team from Katusha to the Italian Farnese Vini-Selle Italia team seems to paying off after an early season interruption in which he broke a collarbone. The rivalry with Boonen will certainly resume at Paris-Roubaix but there certainly be more protagonists in France with defending champion Johan Vansummeren and Thor Hushovd expected to make strong showings. How Pozzato pulls up following De Ronde will impact his race come Sunday but following Sunday’s 2^nd placing he was keen to let the press know he was the strong rider but also the first of the idiots. The work he did with compatriot Ballan was also a crucial factor in his good finish. If these two get away in a break again at Roubaix it could be an Italian victory, which in the monuments is becoming a rarity.

BMC: A strong showing without Gilbert and Hushovd making any moves suggests BMC are getting close to a classics win in 2012. Ballan was the strong rider at De Ronde and was quite rightly the protected rider. Gilbert flexed his muscles once or twice but didn’t interest any of the other riders. If he is to find his form of the Ardennes in 2011 he’ll have a lot of training in the next 2 weeks. Hushovd was another of the stars who, true to his character, had a below par race. Not a fan of Flanders, Hushovd clearly had two eyes on Roubaix and was fine to get some more kms in the legs and some practice on the cobbles. With the forecast leaning towards a wet race the kms Hushovd has in his legs after De Ronde may prove decisive after he pushed through to finish. Greg Van Avermaet sprinted to 4^th showing that at any other team he’d probably be a 1^st choice classics rider. He isn’t but he is still pushing his case should Hushovd or Ballan have bad day on Sunday.

There was a lot more talking points post De Ronde but with the majority of these issues dealt with by numerous sources they needn’t be dealt with here. Attention is now fully focused on Sunday after Kittel took out a crash marred sprint at the 100^th edition of Scheldeprijs. Boonen will take the favourite tag individually now with several riders a rung below him. Pozzato and Ballan filling out the podium again won’t be a surprise but with Hushovd after his maiden win and in enigmatic form and Vansummeren looking to do the double, there looks to be more fireworks than De Ronde.