2007 Paris-Roubaix

The 2007 (105th) edition of the Paris-Roubaix cycling classic took place on April 15, 2007. Among the participating favorites were 2006 champion Fabian Cancellara and 2005 champion Tom Boonen. While the race has a flat parcours, the often poor weather and long sections of cobblestone roads which are traditionally incorporated make for a difficult race, rarely featuring an "en masse" sprint finish. The race is part of the 2007 UCI ProTour.

Right from the start, several riders tried to be part of the traditional early breakaway, however the peloton looked to be letting no one go. It was only after 31 kilometres that a group of 34 riders got away, consisting of:
* for Team CSC: Matti Breschel flagicon|Denmark, Stuart O'Grady flagicon|Australia and Luke Roberts flagicon|Australia.
* for T-Mobile Team: Bert Grabsch flagicon|Germany, Roger Hammond flagicon|Great Britain and Andreas Klier flagicon|Germany.
* for Skil-Shimano: Fabian Bacquet flagicon|France, Clément Lhotellerie flagicon|France and Floris Goesinnen flagicon|Netherlands.
* for Quick Step-Innergetic: Matteo Tosatto flagicon|Italy and Kevin van Impe flagicon|Belgium.
* for Predictor-Lotto: Tom Steels flagicon|Belgium and Greg Van Avermaet flagicon|Belgium.
* for Liquigas: Roberto Petito flagicon|Italy and Frederik Willems flagicon|Belgium.
* for Caisse d'Epargne: Nicolas Portal flagicon|France and José Joaquín Rojas Gil flagicon|Spain.
* for Team Gerolsteiner: David Kopp flagicon|Germany and Tom Stamsnijder flagicon|Netherlands.
* for Crédit Agricole: Julian Dean flagicon|New Zealand and Jimmy Engoulvent flagicon|France.
* for AG2R Prévoyance: Stéphane Poulhies flagicon|France and Nicolas Rousseau flagicon|France.
* for Team Wiesenhof-Felt: Olaf Pollack flagicon|Germany and Robert Wagner flagicon|Germany.
* for Lampre-Fondital: Enrico Franzoi flagicon|Italy.
* for Rabobank: Bram de Groot flagicon|Netherlands.
* for Française des Jeux: Ludovic Auger flagicon|France.
* for Cofidis: Tristan Valentin flagicon|France.
* for Team Milram: Ralf Grabsch flagicon|Germany.
* for Bouygues Télécom: Erki Pütsep flagicon|Estonia.
* for Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team: Volodymyr Bileka flagicon|Ukraine.
* for Euskaltel-Euskadi: Iban Iriondo flagicon|Spain.
* for Astana Team: Gennady Mikhaylov flagicon|Russia.

The lead of the group never grew very big but in the chasing peloton a lot of the favorites were looking at each other. In the end only a few of the favorites got away from the group: Tom Boonen, Leif Hoste, Marcus Burghardt and Staf Scheirlinckx. However they also did not cooperate very well and in the end a few of the survivors of the lead group were never to be seen again. Of those, Stuart O'Grady in the end proved to be the strongest. O'Grady had actually dropped from the lead group because of a puncture but had managed to get back together with a few others, namely Juan Antonio Flecha, Steffen Wesemann and Björn Leukemans. Still, of the original breakaway group, five riders managed to get into the top ten, which does not happen often in Paris-Roubaix.It should be mentioned, however, that Leif Hoste was shockingly knocked down by a motorbike on Carrefour de l'Arbre. Had he reached Tom Boonen, the race could've ended otherwise.

Results

2007-04-15: Compiègne-Roubaix, 259 km.:

External links

* [http://www.letour.fr/2007/PRX/LIVE/us/100/index.html Official site]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/franklouwers/sets/72157600087131022/ Flickr Set]