The echo of his third success at the Tour of Flanders has not yet died down and Fabian Cancellara is once again expected as the big favorite in Paris-Roubaix this Palm Sunday. For the Swiss champion it would be the fourth success in the super classic on cobblestones, a success that would lead him to equal the record of victories held by two Belgians, Roger De Vlaeminck and Tom Boonen. And it is precisely Boonen, the 33-year-old leader of the Omega Pharma Quick Step, the most formidable opponent for Cancellara, on a hard but more suitable track, due to the absence of walls, to enhance the Flemish's long distance qualities, aiming for the “ manita”, a fifth triumph that would drive Belgium crazy, already everything is rooting for him, always ready to forgive him for all the playboy escapades in the Montecarlo residence. Since the 2005 edition Boonen and Cancellara have collected seven successes together, leaving room for the others only in 2007 (success by Australian Stuart O'Grady) and in 2011 (victory by Johan Vansummeren).
Who could break the supremacy of the two big names in pavé? According to the forecasts of the bookmakers, it is a small group of riders: in the order of favourites, Peter Sagan (winner of Ghent-Wevelgem but disappointing in last Sunday's Ronde); Sepp Vanmarcke, already second last year behind Cancellara; Alexnder Kristoff, the Norwegian who burned Spartacus himself in the sprint at the last Sanremo; Zdenek Stybar, cyclo-cross world champion; John Degenkolb, winner in Harelbeke; and again: Niki Terpstra, Greg Van Avermaet, second in this year's Tour of Flanders. Others – including Vansummeren himself, already winner of a Roubaix, in contention despite having been the protagonist of a disastrous fall in the last Ronde involving an elderly woman still in a coma – would be a surprise. How surprising would be a success by Bradley Wiggins, who hasn't shown signs of life for too long, but who has put this Roubaiux among his 2014 targets.
We'll see, but pessimism about the English baronet, icon of world cycling in 2012, is growing week by week as the Grand Tour season approaches with an Alberto Contador, also winner of the Tour of the Basque Country after the Tirreno-Adriatico, increasingly determined to take back the crown after being nearly humiliated at last year's Tour by Chris Froome.
