Race winner: Tom Boonen (Omega-Pharma Quick-Step) won the race in a three man sprint to tie the all-time record of three wins in this race after some great team tactics with both Sylvain Chavanel and Nikki Terpstra attacking and splitting the field to set up their leader.
Other podium finishers: Pippo Pozzato (Farnese Vini) had some of his best form ever making the final breakaway but being unable to beat Boonen in the sprint while former world champion and Ronde van Vlaanderen winner Alessandro Ballan (BMC) was beaten badly in the sprint (as expected), finishing 3rd , his first podium in this race since winning in 2007.
Story of the day (non-winner category): Pre-race co-favorite Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) crashed out in a feeding zone and was taken to the hospital. Sadly, this also means he will miss Paris-Roubaix next Sunday where he and Boonen were expected to do battle again. Hopefully he is back by Tour de France and Olympic time to resume his time trialing rivalry with Tony Martin (Qmega-Pharma Quick-Step).
US tv coverage review: For the first time NBC Sports Network carried live coverage of the race. Excellent. That said, they need to get the commercial timing down better before Paris-Roubaix next week and then next season. The timing in classics is a bit different than in the Tour de France and while I know the number of commercials that some found excessive was necessary, the timing was awful. On a regular basis we came back from commercial in the middle of a big move or one of the important climbs. It's something that needs to be corrected going forward. Other than that, a good first effort from the network as long as Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen are tolerable to you as commentators (I find them endearing if a little strange).
Other odds and ends: Given the new course, I think this was a good race. Was it as good as it has been? No way (though that may be the sadness over the Cancellara crash speaking moreso than anything else). That will come with time and knowledge of how the new course will work. Now that it has been raced once, I expect next year to be back to the incredible race we used to get... The future was on display for part of the race. 22 year old Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) finished fifth and 21 year old Sep Vanmarcke (Garmin-Barracuda) was in the leading breakaway group before fading at the end. These two are likely the future of the cobbled classics once Boonen and Cancellara start to age and fade a little bit... Omega-Pharma Quick-Step looks like the HTC-Columbia superteam. They have won nearly everything in the cobbled season (Boonen won all the classics except the Omloop in February where he was beaten in a sprint by Vanmarcke and the two cobbled stage races were won by Terpstra and Chavanel). In addition, they absorbed quite a few of HTC's prolific winners (notably Tony Martin) and Levi Leipheimer. The team should be a threat all season instead of just in April like past Quick-Step teams.
What's next: To Paris-Roubaix. With Cancellara out injured, Boonen is the sole and overwhelming favorite. That said, Thor Hushovd (BMC) has coveted this race for a long time and he is a possible winner next week, especially without Cancellara in the field. For others who avoid the cobblestones, the Tour of the Basque Country gets underway tomorrow in Northern Spain.
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