Cycling Reports

DOMO TAKE 1,2,3 IN PARIS ROUBAIX CLASSIC: (By Gerard Cromwell Apr 15) The French call it 'Lenfer Du Nord' - the Hell of the North, but for ServaisKnaven and his Domo-Farm Frites teammates todays Paris-Roubaix classic washeaven on earth. Starting in Paris and winding it's way along cobbled farmtracks to finish in the veledrome at Roubaix, the race is cyclingsequivalent of the Grand National in horse racing. The 254km course featured 42kms of cobbled farm roads which had been madeeven more treacherous than usual by torrential rain over the past few days.

The slippery road surface saw a number of riders fall and indeed the onlyrider of the first ten over the line not to suffer from some sort of mishapwas Belgian Ludo Dierxsens. The race was dominated by an eleven manbreakaway group which featured no less than four of the Domo-Farm Fritesteam. Wilfried Peeters of Belgium launched the team on the road to success when heattacked with 75kms to go, ensuring that his teammates Knaven, former doubleParis-Roubaix winner Johan Museeuw and current world champion Romans Vainsteins wouldn't have to help in the chase group. Despite the bestefforts of Lampre's Ludo Dierkxsens and US Postal's George Hincapie, Peetersstayed away for over 50kms. 

While the chasers seemed to be taking it inturns to puncture and Stefann wesseman of Telekom had problems with hispedals, Peeters had built up a maximum lead of 54 seconds before succumbingto the same fate as the rest of the chase group and a front wheel puncture. As Peeters was reeled in, his Domo teammate and former champion of Holland,Servais Knaven, attacked and rode onto the track in Roubaix with 45 secondsin hand over teammate Museeuw. Having time to wipe the days dirt from hisjersey to allow his sponsors name to be seen, Knaven did a solo lap of thetrack before gaining his biggest victory to date. Museeuw took second placewith another Domo rider, Vainsteins taking third and earning himself enoughpoints to go into the lead in the Cycling World Cup. 

Ireland's Ciaran Powerriding for the Saint Quentin-Oktos team, found the going a bit tough in hisfirst outing in the queen of the classics. RESULTS1 SERVAIS KNAVEN Domo-Farm Frites (Ned)2. Johan Museeuw (DOMO Farm Frites) (Bel)3. Romans Vainsteins (DOMO -Farm Fries) (Lit)4. George Hincapie (US Postal) (USA)5. Wilfried Peeters (DOMO-Farm Frites) (Bel)6. Ludo Dierkxsens (Lampre) (Bel)7. Stefan Wesseman (Telekom) (Ger)8. Andre Tchmil (Lotto) (Bel)9. Chris Peers (Cofidis) (Bel)10. Rolf Sorensen (CSC-Worldonline) (Den)

PICTURES OF THE PARIS - ROUBAIX By Pat McQuaid - See Pictures Here >>