Paris Roubaix would have to be the best one day cycling race to watch, hands down.
I managed to wrest the TV from the wife with about 70km to go as well, then managed to hang around to the end, including watching the last 10km on my laptop from the SBS stream in bed. Bit disappointed I missed the Arenberg Forrest this year, but glad I got what I did of the race.
It was clear that Cancellara wasn't up to his usual standard. Normally when he puts the hammer down on the cobbles, that's it and only the really top tier guys like Boonen can hang with him. This time Stybar got on his wheel easily, and van Avermaet would've been there too if he hadn't been stuck behind Gaurdin at the time. The second time, Cancellara couldn't even drop van Marcke. None of those other guys are what you would normally put in the "top tier" of cobbled classics riders.
To be honest, I thought Cancellara was actually really cooked when he was in the third group of the day, before he put the hammer down on the road (not the cobbles!) and bridged to the second group, who then quickly caught the couple of leaders. When van Marcke and the OPQ guy whose name I've just forgotten I immediately thought that they were assured a podium position with Cancellara. I got one right!
Cancellara's weakness sure made for an exciting finish though.
And how unfortunate was it for Stybar and the other OPQ rider to hit the spectators? Really bad luck. Terpstra sorta saved OPQ's day by out sprinting van Avermaet for third. Which is ironic, as van Avermaet saved BMC's day when Hushovd and Phinney both fell off the pace way earlier.
