Tom Boonen, team Quickstep strongman and classics expert, finally picked up his first win at Sunday's Paris-Roubaix. Boonen lead a late breakaway with two other race favorites, CSC's Fabian Cancellara and Alessandro Ballan while riders from CSC and Quickstep controlled the initial break allowing the favorites to battle it out. At the finish, only Boonen had enough in his tank to make the sprint, and he edged the other two riders out by about 2 seconds. The chase group came in 4 minutes adrift, and included surprise Martijn Maaskant, the rookie from Slipstream-Chipotle, who was not favored in the race. The weather proved to be nice, and a strong tailwind allowed the leaders to set a new record for the course since it was changed in 1968. Boonen averaged 45.13 kph (about 26 mph) over the cobbles.
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