Kristoff has risen!
The recently retired Thor Hushovd is unarguably the greatest cyclist that Norway has produced. Although his big physique prevented him from winning or even contending for the yellow jersey of the Tour de France, he won stages in the Tour and the green sprinters jersey. He also won the same prize in the Vuelta a Espana.
Hushovd was great in one day races, won his share and also won the World Championships in 2010. However, he didn’t win the cobble trophy for the winner of Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders, probably because he raced with two of the greatest in that category, Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara.
Hushovd retired last year and his last race was the Arctic Race of Norway. In the penultimate stage, he attacked solo in the last 1.6km. The win would close Thor’s career in a circle, wining his final race in front of his hometown fans. However, somebody forgot to tell another Norwegian rider Alexander Kristoff. He went after Hushovd to take the win by a few meters.
At that time I didn’t really like the way Kristoff took the win, he should have respected the retiring Hushovd and gave him the win. It was only last week that I realized Kristoff’s hunger to win, with blinders on.
Earlier on 2014, Kristff won his first monument, the Milan San Remo, a race that Hushovd could only sniffed at. This year, he made it two monuments by winning the Tour of Flanders, a race Hushovd also failed to win. What rang the bell for me was that a guy named “Kristoff” would win take his biggest trophy on Easter Sunday!
From the time Kristoff took off with 30km to go with Nikki Terpstra, it felt that it was a race for Kristoff. The chasers, that included Greg Avermaer and Peter Sagan, could only get as close as 16 seconds and not more than a minute, only shows how Kristoff had that race in the palm of his hands.
The question for now is this: Will Kristoff be greater than Hushovd? I think at age 27, he already has surpassed the god of Thunder.
PARIS-ROUBAIX
Without the top two favorites Boone and Cancellara, out due to injuries, this year’s P-R will be a bit chaotic. This is what most cycling pundits believe although i think team KATUSHA, the team that Kristoff rides for, will be the one to do so. Another favorite, more intriguing than anything else, is Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour winner who is considered to one of the most complete rider of this generation. Wiggins, who is at odds with his team, will be retiring right after he crosses the line in the Roubaix velodrome (last night). I think that Wiggins team, SKY, will also help control the race. Other than Wiggins, the team also boasts of Gearing Thomas and Ian Stannard, who could be team leaders if they rode for another team. As usual, P-R never fails to amaze and entertain. Finally, Pittsburg Steeler safety Troy Polamalu retired. I loved the way Polamalu terrorised the opposition and he had the knack for being at the right place and at the right time. This 2-time Super Bowl champion will be missed.