Belgian win puts Sutton in Roubaix contention
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday March 1, 2011
CHRIS SUTTON knew that to earn selection for the one-day classic race he holds dearest - the Paris-Roubaix next month - he needed a big result soon.He also knew he could not afford to waste a day's racing after cutting his knee in a crash in January's Tour Down Under, the injury sidelining him until the Tour of Oman in February.In a team such as Sky, winning selection for any classic is tough - let alone the Paris-Roubaix. At the Sky team, winning a berth for the race dubbed the "Hell of the North", because for 55 kilometres it runs over bone-jarring cobblestones, is coveted almost as much as a start in the Tour de France."I love [the] Roubaix," Sutton told the Herald. "We have to prove [we deserve] a spot. No one has a walk-up start. There are about 14 guys to choose from. They have to narrow it to nine riders."If I'm good enough and in good form, they are going to take me. If not, it won't be for lack of trying. I want to be there. I love to work for [Sky teammates] Juan Antonio Flecha and Edvald Boasson Hagen."As the 26-year-old Sydneysider spoke, the Tour of Oman was coming to an end. The Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne semi-classic in Belgium was next.On Sunday, at the end of that 193 kilometre race, the rider who finished with arms aloft in triumph was Sutton. His win over Belorussia's Yauheni Hutarovich (Francaise des Jeux), Germany's Andre Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto), American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) and the rest of the pack was the first in the race by an Australian. It was also the biggest of Sutton's career.It will also go a long way to helping Sutton secure team selection for the Paris-Roubaix race on April 10.Sutton's win was also a telling victory for his team. That his teammate Boasson Hagen, the Norwegian star predicted by many to win but who came eighth, told Sutton before the race that he would ride for him in the sprint, reinforced the team's willingness to share its winning opportunities.It is vital a team's its stars confess if they are not 100 per cent, and grant their chance to someone fresher. That was the case on Saturday, when Boasson Hagen and the Sky team raced in Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Flanders.Sky impressed in the one-day race, with Flecha second to Dutchman Sebastian Langeveld (Rabobank) and Australian Mathew Hayman, also of Sky, third."One thing that is good about the team is that we get the best out of each other," Sutton said.After his win on a sunny and dry Sunday, Sutton praised his teammates for their work in reeling in a four-man break on the final 13.5km circuit, saying: "Mat Hayman asked if I was still up for it, and I said, 'Mate, I can win,"' Sutton said on the Sky website. "I only won because of the work the team did for me. It wasn't a victory for me, it was for the team."
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald