103rd Paris-roubaix

10 April 2005

If his win a week earlier at the Ronde van Vlaanderen hadn’t sealed Tom Boonen’s status as the new poster boy of Belgian cycling, this victory in Roubaix emphatically did. With just George Hincapie and Juan Antonio Flecha for company entering the velodrome, Boonen comfortably won the sprint. It was the eighth time this double had been achieved and in 2012 he became the first to do it twice. The chance to eclipse Roger De Vlaeminck’s four wins remains tantalisingly within reach this spring.