PARIS-ROUBAIX

The cobblestone classic "Hell of the North" lived up to expectations this afternoon. The rivalry between Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara continued, but - as I predicted last Sunday after the Tour of Flanders - it was the Swiss who again came out on top. Boonen attacked the leading group several times without shaking off the favourites; and then, with 48km to go and while Boonen was taking a breather at the back of the bunch, Cancellara effortlessly accelerated away on an asphalt section and was gone. Despite being one man against eight, and riding most of the time into a fierce headwind, he simply time-trialled away from some of the best one-day riders in the world (Boonen, Hushovd, Flecha, Pozzato) to win by two minutes. A crushing victory, even better than his performance in the Ronde, and one which made Cancellara the first man to do the spring double since Boonen himself in 2005.

This year's Tour de France will include - for the first time in some while - seven of the "pavé" sections they went over today. The favourites for the three-week stage race, small men who mainly specialise in going uphill, won't know what's hit them. A rider won't win the Tour on the 6 July stage that finishes in Arenberg, but they could well lose it on that day.

Boonen and Cancellara will now take a well-earned breather while attention switches to the hillier Ardennes classics. This is already shaping up to be a great cycling season.

One last thought. Sometimes sport just doesn't seem fair. The winner of Paris-Roubaix gets Euros30,000 for cycling 260km over dreadful "roads" for six and a half hours, at an average speed of just under 40km an hour. When compared with the likes of tennis and golf, that is peanuts.

Walter Blotscher