The Spartan does revenge himself
Three weeks ago was a great day, if you were in the shoes of Fabian Cancellara. That guy is a marvelous athlete, a fierce competitor and a brilliant cyclist. The 111th edition of the Paris-Roubaix was held 3 weeks ago (Sorry, I'm a little late on that one I know!) where we the sun shone throughout the Nord-Pas-De-Calais region in France. This classic race called '' La Reine des Classiques '' which means the Queen of the Classics is always a special and upcoming race for all the professional cyclists especially this year's edition for Fabian Cancellara.
Last year, for those of you who watched it know that the Swiss didn't make it to the end because of a gruesome and ugly fall during the race. This particular race is well known by cyclists that there is a high percentage of falling because of its countless kilometers of old paved roads and in 2012, Fabian was among many that crashed. Not only did he crashed but he also broke is shoulder and in the same time, put himself out of the competition for a while. So this year was all but revenge for him and I think it's a well deserved win even though he started as the favorite cyclist to win 2013 Paris-Roubaix.
But, there was one man who stood up against Fabu (his fans like to call him that way) during the last 20 kilometers. This young belgian with his new team Blanco who knew during all the 257,5 km that he had to keep Cancellara in sight made a name for himself for the years to come. He didn't only kept him in sight but also took his share of relays. This man, Sep Vanmarcke, in tears after the race, so close of a win against Spartacus himself, was really remarkable in this race. The 24 years-old lost in the last sprint in the famous Velodrome of Roubaix, in front of many fans by the legendary Cancellara. The head and the heart was definitly there to win this for the young Vanmarcke but the legs weren't. After almost 260 km, I can understand that!!!
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| Fabian Cancellara celebrating |
So, with this year's Tour des Flandres and Paris-Roubaix wins, who is going to beat this machine on 2 wheels of Fabian Cancellara? This is an exciting subject to talk on. Let's recap a bit about all the races held right now.
Calendar & Rankings
2013 UCI World Tour road cycling Calendar
The source used for this well developped calendar is the official website of the UCI which you can find more about it through this link.
2013 UCI World Tour rankings
The source of this chart is the official website of the UCI which you can find more about it through this link.
As you can see in the unofficial overall ranking, with his yesterday win, Fabian Cancellara took the lead by a good margin to the Slovak Peter Sagan. Those 2 are in a race for World Tour Championship because the others aren't simply close enough except 1 or 2 other cyclists.
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| Peter Sagan at the finish line of stage 2 of the Tour d'Oman |
Will we see a dominating Sagan in the upcoming Tour de France like last year or will Cancellara be making all the experts fall out of their chairs and win 1 or 2 races in the Alps and the ''Contre-la-montre''? Are they going to participate in the Giro D'Italia and the Vuelta Ciclista a España too? There is much more to expect from these two for this year and if there won't be any major problems, it will be really exciting to see RadioShack and Cannonale going big with these two.
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Of course there is a bunch more of other cyclists who can beat Fabian like the veteran Tom Boonen, last year's winner of the Paris-Roubaix or maybe the somewhat a bit silent Alberto Contador. In any cases, one major crash for Fabian and/or Peter and every prognostics will be false.
I'm really a fan of cycling. With this year's edition, it will be my 7th year in a row that I will watch the Tour de France. Never missed one day during those years. Of course I was pretty sad when I heard and read about 7 times champion Lance Armstrong who was a cheater in his sport. It is a pretty hard sport I might say like many others.
For those of you, sports fans, who are training at their best and need a little boost, try this limited offer that will end soon. Great deals only for you cyclists and go ride! I'll be posting some more about the Giro d'Italia soon and about other subjects too.
