Friday 6 March 2015 10:58, UK
It’s still early in the season but I will be surprised if we see a more impressive victory all year than Ian Stannard’s win at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday.
That was something else. No one was in any doubt he could win the race at the start of the day – he did so in 2014, of course – but the manner in which he outsmarted three Etixx – Quick-Step riders was eye-catching in the extreme.
Make no mistake, that was a kick in the teeth to Belgium as a cycling nation, not just Etixx – Quick-Step. It's a Belgian race and there were Belgians queuing up to win it - Tom Boonen and Stijn Vandenbergh in the front group and then Sep Vanmarcke and Greg van Avermaet chasing a little further down the road. So for Stannard to come out on top was the very definition of against the odds.
For me, it was right up there with Britain's best classics victories. OK, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is one of the smaller so-called "semi-classics" and, historically, Stannard’s triumph might not be looked upon in the same way as Mark Cavendish’s win at Milan-San Remo in 2009 or Tom Simpson’s wins back in the 1960s, but in terms of guts and glory, it was a match for them.
One question it raised is who is going to lead Team Sky at Paris-Roubaix now? It all seemed geared towards Sir Bradley Wiggins being leader, with it being his final race for the team, but how can you not back Stannard throughout the classics when he is capable of a performance like that?
Not that Sir Dave Brailsford will see it as a headache, because I’m sure he is delighted to have so many potential winners going into the classics. Having Stannard, Wiggins and Geraint Thomas all as strong cards to play is a luxurious position to be in and I’m sure rival teams will treat Team Sky with a great deal of respect.
As for whether Stannard is peaking too early, I don’t think that’s the case because he definitely won’t have been planning to be on top form for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, without wanting to disrespect the race.
The big classics – Milan-San Remo, Gent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix - are all still to come and that’s when he will aiming to be at his best, in that three-week block at the end of March and start of April.
He just happened to be the best man on the day on Saturday and I can’t envisage he will fall away from the standard he set with that win.
It was also good to see Cavendish win at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday and continue his strong start to the season.
He now has six wins in 2015, but more significant for me was the fact that he beat Alexander Kristoff into second place, which bodes well for Milan-San Remo later this month, where those two should be among the favourites for victory.
But I’m sure he won’t let that win go to his head because he knows all too well that Milan-San Remo is a far longer and far more demanding race than Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
He also knows that sprinting at the moment is a very close and same the guys you beat one day can just as easily beat you the next. It will, however, serve as a confidence-booster and a reminder that his winter training is paying off.
His previous wins this year had been on pan-flat days, but he now knows for a fact that he can go over a few climbs – like he did at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and like he will at Milan-San Remo – and still have enough in the legs to deliver a winning sprint at the finish.
