Johan Van Summeren put in a late attack to take a surprise victory in a spectacular Paris-Roubaix.
Cancellara fights back for second
Johan Van Summeren put in a powerful late attack to take a surprise victory in a spectacular 109th edition of Paris-Roubaix.
The Garmin-Cervelo rider was part of a four-man breakaway that edged clear as the prestigious race entered its closing stages.
The Belgian unleashed his solo effort 14.5 kilometres from home on the punishing Carrefour de l'Arbre cobbled section, setting up a nail-biting time trial to the line.
Van Summeren entered the fabled Roubaix Velodrome on his own and took the win by 19 seconds from a charging Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek).
The defending champion blasted past Van Summeren's breakaway partners Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Gregory Rast (RadioShack) and Lars Bak (HTC-Highroad), who held on to round out the top five.
The odds-on favourite before the race, Cancellara found himself isolated without team-mates in the latter stages, resulting in a tactical finish as arguments broke out between the favourites.
Incident-packed
The race began under a frantic pace with unusually warm conditions leading to huge clouds of dust cloaking the 258km route.
An eight-man break slipped away prior to the first of the 27 cobbled sections and was bolstered by another four riders with 122km left to go.
One of the grandest prizes in world cycling, the race was characterised by a nervous bunch that led to a spate of crashes.
The pace was ramped up on the approach to the first significant section of pavé and with 88km remaining Brit Roger Hammond went down hard in a crash that also delayed Garmin-Cervelo team-mate Heinrich Haussler.
Minutes later drama struck once again when another pre-race favourite Tom Boonen (Quick Step) was forced to stop on the critical Trench of Arenberg section after a mechanical.
The three-time winner was forced to chase back on, receiving little help from the rest of the stragglers, only to enter sector 14 - Tilloy à Sars-et-Rosières - and go down hard in a crash that included Team Sky riders Geraint Thomas and Michael Barry.
With Boonen's hopes in tatters a dangerous group of seven riders including Van Summeren broke clear as the field exited the notorious Arenberg stretch.
Drama
Sylvain Chavanel was the next of the favourites to hit the deck after the Frenchman touched wheels going into a turn, in the process confirming it would not be Quick Step's day.
Back in what was left of the peloton, Cancellara made his first attack of the race on the five-star difficulty Mons-en-Pévèle sector, a powerful dig that left all but three riders eating his dust.
Joined by Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo) and Alessandro Ballan (BMC) in a chasing group, the race was turned inside out when in-fighting broke out between the big names.
The pause in play allowed a number of riders like Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) to rejoin the elite group, yet unsurprisingly word filtered through to the front breakaway bunch and a number of riders began to chance their arm with attacks off the front.
With 22km to Roubaix the front group splintered after an attack from Bak, dragging along three riders in what would prove to be the decisive move of the race.
For the second consecutive Sunday, Cancellara was beaten despite appearing the strongest rider, a point he emphasised with a defiant dig with under 5km remaining to net 'Spartacus' his third podium in three cycling monuments this season.
Team Sky saw their progress hampered by bad luck and crashes and were lead home by Flecha in ninth, followed one place later by Mathew Hayman to round out the top-10.
