The 107th edition of Paris-Roubaix was held on Sunday and it totally lived up to all the pre-race hype. The weather was both warm and dry which should have made those darn cobblestones a bit more friendly, but they seemed to dish out bad luck just at the wrong time. While there was strong riding at the front, the stones, or pave as they are called in France, played a huge role in the outcome.

At the finish heavy pre-race favorite Tom Boonen entered the velodrome by himself, calling his third victory the hardest yet. For the second weekend in a row, Tom was heavily marked, especially by former teammate, Filippo Pozzato, but the two-time World Champion showed his class by being in front when it counted and initiating the most decisive move of the race.

It could be argued that Boonen benefited from two untimely crashes which caused his five breakaway companions to lose contact, but Tom was active at the front throughout the last half of the cobbled sections. It was more a situation of creating opportunities than benefiting from bad luck. Boonen shed his final breakaway companion, Thor Hushovd, then the Norwegian was unable to follow him through a sharp, cobbled turn and went down.

Once again, American favorite George Hincapie had bad luck at just the wrong time. You have to hand it to George for trying to play a decisive role. He and his Columbia-High Road team worked very hard to be a factor in the race. When Hincapie missed the Boonen-led winning breakaway, George took it upon himself to drive the chasing peloton in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to bring the move back. One of these days an American is going to win this race and I hope George hangs around long enough to be that guy.

Besides Team Columbia-Highroad's disappointing race, the Saxo Bank squad also came up goose eggs in the finale. Bjarne's boys looked poised for another win with so many of their top riders at the front alongside Tom Boonen with about 40 miles remaining. Somehow, Boonen gave them slip and the team which won in 2006(Cancellara) and 2007(O'Grady) came up unexpectedly empty-handed.

Hats off to Garmin-Slipstream's Steven Cozza who made it into the early ten-man breakaway which lasted far longer than anyone expected. Making it through the cobbles of the Arenberg Forest upright and in the lead group was quite an accomplishment for the 24-year old Californian in his first attempt at the Queen of the Classics. Chapeau.

Bruce

In 2005, the UCI, the governing body of cycling, created the Pro Tour in an

attempt to form a season-long competition involving the premier European pro

races. Unfortunately, the organizers of the premier European races such as

the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana, known as the grand tour

organizers, were skeptical of the real reasons behind the UCI forming the

Pro Tour.

Over the past three years of its existence the Pro Tour has been a rocky road.

At the end of 2007, the UCI and the grand tour organizers agreed to remove the

grand tours and the other races put on by the grand tour organizers such as

Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Milan San Remo from the Pro Tour.  So,

instead of the original 30 races, the 2008 edition of the Pro Tour will have 16

races. Is this divorce and new version of the Pro Tour a good thing for

professional cycling?  I think it is and for a lot of good reasons.

First off, the UCI needs to prove that it can manage and promote a premier

race series on its own. Trying to latch onto races like the Tour de France,

Giro d'Italia and Paris-Roubaix, which are already wildly popular, is like

coming in to close a game with two outs, two strikes in the ninth inning with a

ten run lead. It doesn't prove the UCI's capabilities to deliver what they

promised with the Pro Tour, notably to grow cycling by increasing it's

popularity and sponsorship.

Secondly, the Pro Tour was an huge burden to the already established events

because its 20 team format severely limited the wild card invitations a race

organizer could offer non-Pro Tour teams. This caused a real have and have-not

situation. If you weren't a Pro Tour team, your squad was unlikely to get the

opportunity to prove yourself on the world's stage. A few teams, like

Barloworld at last year's Tour, got the chance and they stepped up their game

several notches and were one of the real bright moments in France last July.

This is great news for the two US teams, Slipstream-Chipotle and BMC Racing,

who are trying to gain a ticket into Europe's big races. Slipstream just

received an invite to the Giro. Would that have happened under the Pro Tour

system last year? BMC and Slipstream are also looking for a slot in the Queen

of the Classics, Paris-Roubaix.  With 2004 winner, Maggy Backstedt on his

roster, Jonathan Vaughter's Slipstream squad should get an invite. It would

be great to see the BMC boys alongside them at the start as well.

And for those of you used to seeing a US-based team at the Tour, the removal

of the Pro Tour restrictions means that Slipstream could be lining up at the

start come this July.

Don't get me wrong. I am not a Pro Tour hater. One of the things I really

liked about the Pro Tour is that if a team held a multi-year Pro Tour license,

it was guaranteed entry into the biggest races. With such a guarantee, a team

could approach a potential sponsor in, say 2007, with the promise that they

would be at the Tour in 2008. Unfortunately, there were just too many Pro Tour

teams and they basically sucked up all the spots at those same big races.

Again, this was the case of the haves versus the have-nots.

It's extremely early in the season, the first Pro Tour race, the Tour Down

Under in Australia has just started, but I have a good feeling that this new

arrangement is going to force both the UCI and the grand tour organizers

to bring their A games which will ultimately be the best for professional

cycling. What do you all think?

Bruce