Cobblestone in someone else's garden

The legendary Paris-Roubaix race was won for the first time by a non-European

The one hundred and fifth Paris-Roubaix race, the oldest and most prestigious in the world of professional cycling, the same age as the Olympics, dating back to 1896, ended with an unprecedented result. For the first time at the Roubaix velodrome, a non-European participant was the first to cross the finish line. The most important victory of his career was achieved by Australian Stuart O'Grady.

The success of an athlete from the Green Continent, competing for the Danish team CSC, is also unique in that he was in the leading group for almost the entire 260-kilometer distance, leaving the lead around the 20-kilometer mark from the start. At first, the company of about three dozen riders had a modest advantage of 15 seconds over the peloton; around the 45th kilometer it reached three minutes. The main group was in no hurry to pursue. Usually, when rural roads paved with cobblestones begin, fugitives cannot withstand the stress and sharply slow down. However, this time, thanks to excellent, dry and windy weather, the riders who launched the attack were able to maintain a high pace.

In the lead were four representatives of CSC and the German T-Mobile, who worked hard for their sprint leaders, who were able to increase their speed closer to the finish line. Once the course began stretches of narrow cobblestone road, the peloton's gap was reduced from five minutes to about one and a half minutes. The most resilient of the breakaway group at that moment made a sharp breakthrough, in which, along with O'Grady, the winners of Paris-Roubaix of the last two years, Belgian Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), the winner of the recent Tour of Flanders, Italian Alessandro Ballan, and five others took part Human.

For some time, O'Grady still lost the lead. German David Copp and Belgian Kevin van Impe took the lead. This did not last long. The compact group, which included the Australian, regained the leading position. And then the racer from the Green Continent sharply stepped on the pedals, receiving an almost minute handicap. His advantage on the Roubaix velodrome track was 52 seconds, the Spaniard Juan Antonio Flesha (Rabobank) finished second, the Swiss Steffen Wesemann from the German team Wiesenhof Welt, which received a wild card, finished third. The best of the Russians turned out to be Vladimir Gusev (Discovery Channel), who consistently performs at prestigious one-day events - 17th place and two and a half minutes behind the Australian.

For the first time, the main prize in the form of a cobblestone on a stand encrusted with precious items leaves Europe. Of the 180 participants who started, the result was counted for 96 riders, five more did not meet the time limit, and the rest simply did not make it to Roubaix. However, the figure of over 50% finishers for such difficult races as Paris-Roubaix is ​​considered very decent. For example, four years ago, when Vyacheslav Ekimov, who closed the top three, performed brilliantly, only 63 athletes completed the entire distance.

Racers from other continents began to take leading roles in Paris-Roubaix relatively recently. In 1990, Canadian Steve Bauer finished right behind the winner; two years ago, George Hincapie (USA) took second place. And finally, O'Grady wrote a fundamentally new page in the history of the famous race. For the tenth time in a row, French fans experienced terrible disappointment. The owners of the track since 1997, after the victory of Frederic Guisdon, have not been able to not only win this race, but even to even get into the medals.

O'Grady, having immediately earned 50 points in the Pro Tour standings, led the classification of this series - he has 77 points. Next come Oscar Freire (77) and Italian David Rebellin (62). The multi-day race “Tour of the Basque Country” was won last week by the Spaniard Juan José Cobo, and he is now in fifth place in the “Pro Tour” with Boonen - 57 points each. Another driver from the Iberian Peninsula has a point more - Alberto Contador Velasco.

Ilya TRISVIATSKY