Tour of Flanders 2013

The road

At the start

Cancellara and Sagan, and nobody else

Bruges, and a second Ronde without the Muur or the Bosberg: three times up the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg instead, everything settled in the last fifteen kilometres. Tom Boonen defends his title short of form and of health. Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan, who chased each other into the Via Roma a fortnight ago, are the two names on every board — and the fear is that they will simply mark each other out.

How it was won

1. 173 km to go

   Six in front as the loops begin

   Of the nine who went early only Jetse Bol and Laurens De Vreese are left, and they have Greipel, Kwiatkowski, Tjallingii and Sieberg for company. They swing onto the first Oude Kwaremont with a minute in hand, and behind them nobody moves: the favourites are watching each other and nothing else.

2. 263 km to go

   Feet down on the Koppenberg

   The wall does what the wall does. Riders unclip halfway up and stand in the gutter, the road jams solid behind them, and everyone caught out has to chase across Flanders to get back on. Up front the leaders are untouched by any of it.

3. 333 km to go

   Thomas down, Flecha gone

   The peloton arrives at the second Paterberg in waves, too fast and too wide, and Geraint Thomas goes down in the surge. Juan Antonio Flecha loses the wheel to a mechanical on the cobbles. Over the top only Selvaggi and Kwiatkowski are still ahead of the race.

4. 426 km to go

   Roelandts jumps before the guns do

   On the long drag between the Paterberg and the Hotond, Offredo, Roelandts, Hinault and Turgot go early, before the big names can. Only Kwiatkowski holds them over the top — and behind, Stijn Devolder drags the bunch back to thirty seconds. The race is still open.

5. 516 km to go

   Cancellara makes his move

   Roelandts sheds Hinault and hits the cobbles alone. Behind him comes the acceleration all Belgium has spent the day waiting for: Fabian Cancellara stands up on the last Oude Kwaremont and only Peter Sagan can hold the wheel. They crest fifteen seconds down on Roelandts with the rest of the race blown to pieces.

6. 613 km to go

   The Paterberg

   Three hundred and sixty metres of cobbles at up to twenty per cent, and Cancellara takes the front of the trio on the steepest of it. He glances back once and Roelandts is already gone. Then, just before the top, Sagan bows his head — the smallest gesture, and the whole Ronde inside it — and the gap opens. Cancellara tucks low, finds the biggest gear he has, and turns the last thirteen kilometres into a time trial.

7. 7At the line

   Oudenaarde, alone

   He comes into Oudenaarde with more than a minute in hand and time enough to sit up and take it in — a second Tour of Flanders, three years after the first, won in the most predictable and least answerable way there is.

The result