Twas a classic Classic on the pave in France for the Paris-Roubaix race.

The best two sprinters of the world (both on teams sponsored by U.S. companies) — Tom Boonen of Quick Step and Fabian Cancellara of CSC — duked it out, along with Lampre’s Alessandro Ballan.  with Boonen beating Cancellara across the line on the track in Roubaix. Ballan placed third. Twas the second Paris-Roubaix win for Boonen.

10 Speed faves George Hincapie of High Road and Magnus Backstedt of Slipstream-Chipotle had difficult days.

For Big George, the Tour of Missouri winner, there was more bad luck at Paris-Roubaix. Hincapie, the runner-up to Boonen in 2005, crashed in 2002 at the front of the pack with 16 km to go and went down in 2006 with a broken steerer tube while in the lead group with 45 km to go. This time, Hincapie’s rear wheel broke on the pave 53 km before the finish. At the time, his team was making its big move with Bernard Eisel riding a high tempo at the front to blow up the lead group, according to Velonews.com.

Hincapie had to wait for a new wheel (on the pave, it takes a while for team cars to get to stranded riders). And then, eight men broke off the front and there was no way for Hincapie to reconnect with the leaders. That break also dropped Backstedt, who lost touch with the group by having twice as much bad luck — two broken wheels –as Hincapie had.

For all of his difficulty, Hincapie still finished ninth, 5:12 behind Boonen. It was Hincapie’s seventh top 10 finish at Paris-Roubaix in eight starts over the past 10 years. He finished second in 2004, fourth in 1999 and 2001, sixth in 2000 and 2002, eighth in 2004 and ninth this year.

Despite Backstedt’s difficulties, all was not lost for American team Slipstream-Chipotle. Martijn Maaskant, 24, placed fourth his first Paris-Roubaix.

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