Super Fabian Cancellera followed up his Tour Of Flanders victory by winning the Paris-Roubaix race this afternoon.
The 110th edition of the Hell Of The North started in Compiegne and feature 27 cobbled sectors for the 200 riders to negotiate before they get into the velodrome in Roubaix which is close to the French City of Lille.
Thirteen riders in Evaldas Siskevicius (Sojasun), Guillaume Boivin (Cannondale), Bjorn Thurau (Europcar), Bob Jungels (RadioShack Leopard), Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil), Gatis Smukulis (Katusha) Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma QuickStep), Jacob Rathe (Garmin-Sharp), Jens Debuschere (Lotto), Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank), Eloy Teruel (Movistar), Clement Kortesky (Bretagne Seche) and Benjamin Lemontagner (Bretagne Seche), formed the first escape.
They had a lead of thirty five seconds but with 190kms of 254.5kms left to race, most of the riders were caught and only Gert Steegmans and , Clement Kortesky were left.
This duo was joined by Stuart O'Grady and Team Sky's Matt Hayman and with 100kms left, the quartet had a lead of 1.53.
Crashes are a regular feature of this race and FDJ's Offredo was forced to abandon after going over his handle bars after hitting it a sign in the middle of the road, whilst a Blanco rider was down after whacking a red and white traffic cone.
Onto the 2.4km long Trouée d'Arenberg section which is one of the worst sections in the race and drew massive crowds including a good number of Brits, the quartet had a lead of around a minute.
With 80kms to go, Hayman and Steegmans decided to go on their own and shot away. BMC's Michael Schär used the grass to get up past the peloton and join O'Grady and Kortesky.
Geraint Thomas was involved in a crash with 73.1kms to go which had riders in ditches on either side of the road. Ten Kilometres later and Ladagnous and Jorgen Roelandts clipped a kerb and went down.
Michael Schär caught up to the two leaders which were now being persued by Damien Gaudin of Europcar, who was 18 seconds back and the peloton with British Champion Ian Stannard and Fabian Cancellera working hard at 35 seconds.
On to the Mons-en-Pévèle sectour, the escapers were caught and Lars Boom and Juan Antonio Flecha took over at the front before two groups formed. The first contained four riders and the second contained the likes of Cancellera, who went back to his car with 34kms to go.
A number of riders slowed down with Cancellera and this split the race into four main groups. Vandenbergh, Gaudin, Vanmarcke, Langeve led the first group, Stybar, Van Avermaet, Paolini and Flecha were twelve seconds back and eight seconds ahead of Cancellara, Terpstra, Eisel and Boom whiilst a group containing Sylvain Chavanel was fifty seconds back.
Cancellera may have been simply stocking up on his drinks as with 30kms he charged off and caught the Stybar group.
Ten kilometres later, Vandenbergh and Vanmarcke were just yards ahead of Cancellera and Stybar.
The quartet start to put time into the following groups before Vandenbergh hit a spectator with 15.8kms to go and went down.
An attack by Cancellera was snuffed out before Stybar clipped a spectator on the Le Carrefour de l'Arbre sectour. That put the Czech ten seconds behind Blanco's Sep Vanmarcke and Radio Shack's Cancellera.
Juan Antonio Flecha caught up with Stybar as with 4.1kms to go, Cancellera tried to attack. Vanmarcke was straight on his wheel and it was now between these two as a time check revealed that the chasers were 1.17 behind.
Into the final. kilometre and the cat and mouse games started. The games continued as they rode into the velodrome and took the bell for the final lap in scenes reminiscent of a track pursuit. Vanmarcke led the sprint out but it was Fabian Cancellera who won in a time of 5.45.33 for his third Paris-Roubaix victory in the second fastest Paris-Roubaix of all time.
Nicky Terpstra took third, ahead of Van Avermaet and Gaudin.
Cancellera said to Eurosport after the race: "i don't know how I did it. It was everyone against me but I had to do the selection and we lost a few guys but that is Roubaix.
"I don't know how I did it. "But to come from the back through the groups to be me and Sep Vanmarcke, I dont know how I did it but it was just amazing.
"Today it was pure fighting until the line. "I could not believe when I passed the finish line.
"Today was even more special. Everyone tried to do what they could but my legs and my head wanted to bring me here. Now I want a holiday."
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