Hello readers (or reader?!)

Well, as you will probably have seen last Sunday, Cancellara was once again unstoppable at Paris Roubaix. To attack into a headwind with 50km still to go you need to be confident, but he had every reason to be with the form he had shown in the week(s) previous. Initially it looked like a suicide mission, with a group of around eight of the strongest classics riders chasing behind, but as the gap continued to increase almost all the way to the line, Cancellara showed dominance not seen since the days of Museeuw, or possibly even further ago than that.

From our perspective (I say ‘our’ as a collective, as I didn’t race Paris Roubaix!), it was a very successful day. Thor improved one place on last year, coming 2nd, and Roger played the perfect supporting role, even out-sprinting Tom Boonen to 4th place.  Jeremy Hunt also did a fantastic ride, getting in the break early on, riding hard all day, and still managing to pull out a top 20 finish in the velodrome.

I was pretty pleased with the boys – they must have all read my last blog and come up trumps! It was the perfect way to round off the cobbled classics. OK, so we didn’t win, but given Cancellara’s strength that was nigh on impossible. The important thing was that we showed we are still one of the best classics teams in the world. That said, Heinrich and Andreas Klier were sorely missed, but both will be motivated to come back stronger than ever next season.

I think Roger and Jez’ rides are both worth special mention. With Cavendish, Wiggins and Team Sky all coming into the limelight over the last couple of seasons on the road, it’s easy to forget the guys who have been cutting it with the best for the last decade or more. You could argue that at the age of 42 (only joking Roger – he is in fact 36), Roger has had his best classics season yet, with 7th in Flanders, and 4th in Roubaix, just one place shy of his podium finish of 2004.

In fact, with these two rides, Roger has almost single handedly propelled us to 13th place in the UCI nation rankings. That might not sound of much significance, but in order to qualify a full quota of nine riders again for this years World Champs in Melbourne, we need to be ranked in the first 10 nations. Without Cavendish repeating his amazing early season of last year, achieving that was looking far less likely, but when he and Brad start coming into form again for the big Protour races, it could easily be achievable. Of course, it would help them if the rest of us British pro’s could also pick up the odd point here or there!

Jez is now in his 15th year as a professional, having started out with Banesto in 1996, and being team mates with Miguel Indurain in his last year before retirement. There haven’t been many season’s gone by (if any?) without him picking up at least one win along the way, and he is as motivated now as ever, albeit generally in a more supporting role of Thor and Heinrich.

All that said, it is great to see the young British guys going so well. Geraint Thomas has really impressed me this spring – not only is it the first time he has done these races (which become far ‘easier’ the more you know them), he has also put in massive amounts of work for Flecha, and still been in the thick end of the action right to the finish. Along with Ian Stannard, we have two riders who will be flying the flag in Flanders and Roubaix for the next decade.