THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Slipstream's Maaskant 4th into Roubaix
Minutes before the start of Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix in the French town of Compiegne, Slipstream-Chipotle boss Jonathan Vaughters predicted big things for his young Dutch rider, Martijn Maaskant.
“Martijn is going to have a good ride today — he is going to be the surprise of the race,” Vaughters said.
The 24-year-old Maaskant did not disappoint. In just his first crack at “The Hell of the North,” Maaskant finished fourth in the Roubaix municipal velodrome, crossing the line 3:39 behind race winner Tom Boonen.
“It was very difficult; a very hard race,” said Maaskant, who is Dutch, but born in Belgium. “When Boonen attacked that was the hardest part of the race for me.”
Maaskant’s Slipstream-Chipotle team kept the Dutchman positioned near the front of the peloton for the majority of the 259.5km race, and he followed moves made by the strongest riders in the bunch until only an elite group of eight remained. Boonen (Quick Step), Stuart O’Grady and Fabian Cancellara (both CSC), as well as Italian star Alessandro Ballan (Lampre-Fondital), Leif Hoste and Johan Van Summeren (both Silence-Lotto) and Stijn Devolder (Quick Step) joined the Slipstream/Chipotle rider at the front of the race with less than 50km remaining.
Maaskant kept the animation to a minimum in that group, letting the better-represented teams duke it out on the cobbles. He hung near the back of the group with Ballan, another solo racer, while Devolder and O’Grady attacked, forcing Hoste and Summeren to chase.
Maaskant said he simply wasn’t strong enough to follow Cancellara, Boonen and Ballan, who sped off with 35km to go. Nonetheless, he wisely rode the wheel of a tiring Hoste for 10k and then chased down a surging Devolder and O’Grady late in the race. Maaskant attacked and dropped all three over the final kilometers to earn the biggest result of his young career as a professional.
“Martijn showed that he has a natural sense for tactics today,” Vaughters said. “He made every selection perfectly. It just looked like second nature to him.”
Maaskant’s finish stood as sweet vindication for Slipstream, which saw its classics man, Swede Magnus Backstedt, felled by mechanical difficulties during the race’s 18th sector of pavé, the dreaded 2.4km slog through the forest of Arenberg. Backstedt, the 2004 Roubaix winner, emerged from the forest with two cracked deep-section carbon wheels. During the wheel change, one of the Swede’s brake pads slipped out of the caliper. He remounted his rig and began riding, but soon required a complete bike change and lost contact with the front of the race. He did not finish.
It was after Backstedt’s troubles that the team pinned its hopes on the emerging Dutchman.
“I dropped back and took Martijn up to the front,” said Australian Chris Sutton. “That’s the thing about Martijn. He knows how to do the job, and when he does it he’s not going to talk about it. He’s very humble.”
Maaskant appeared dumbfounded when an army of television crews swarmed him in the infield of the velodrome after he finished. Many Dutch and Belgian reporters asked the youngster to draw comparisons between his first Roubaix finish and that of Boonen, who crossed the line 3rd in 2002. Maaskant answered with a few modest words and a shy smile, and then sped off to the sanctuary of the team bus.
“Martijn is very laid back. He is an extremely relaxed person,” said team manager Johnny Weltz. “We know he is a good bike rider. But he is a guy who likes to sleep late and take it easy.”
Indeed Maaskant’s tendency to sleep late has earned him the nickname “Sleepy Martijn” from his Slipstream-Chipotle teammates.
But taking it easy could prove to be more difficult for Maaskant after his breakthrough 2008 season. Along with his head-turner at Roubaix, Maaskant finished fourth at Italy’s March 8 Monte Paschi Eroica. And last Sunday, the Dutchman stunned his teammates and competitors alike with a 12th place finish at the Tour of Flanders. Maaskant finished alongside strongmen such as George Hincapie, Ballan, Cancellara and Boonen.
That kind of company has people predicting big things to come.
“He’s on a two-year contract with us, which is good. But maybe its time for a big bonus,” Vaughters said.
Martijn Maaskant
Born: July 27, 1983
Home Town: Zuidland, The Netherlands
Height: 6-foot 1
Weight: 168 pounds
Pro Since: 2007
Teams: Rabobank Development
Career Highlights:
2008
4th, Paris-Roubaix
4th, Monte Paschi Eroica
12th, Tour of Flanders
2nd, Tour of Qatar TTT
31st, Three days of DePanne
2007
1st, Tour de Normandie
2nd, Circuit de Lorraine
1st, Stage 4, Circuit de Lorraine
1st, Stage 1, Olympia’s Tour
1st, Stage 3, Circuito Montanes
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