Domestiques Who Can Win Flanders

The Tour of Flanders is right around the corner

The Tour of Flanders, one of the most beautiful and difficult bike races on the cycling calendar, is only two days away. Teams are now in final stages of their preparations for the Belgian monument, and race favorites like Fabian Cancellara, Tom Boonen, Alessandro Ballan, Philippo Pozzato, Leif Hoste, Philippe Gilbert, Sylvain Chavanel, and Juan Antonio Flecha continue to make the final tweaks ahead of race day. But there are others entered in the race who have great chances of winning too. More and more, teams are arriving at the start line of the one day classics with two leaders. Sure, publicly the director sportifs say there is one leader, but some of the talent on hand is worthy of consideration for the win should their leaders falter. Below are the "support" riders of Flanders who could well walk away with the win after all is said and done.

Quick Step

Boonen will have an all-star line up supporting him. In fact, riders like Stijn Devolder and Gert Steegmans both have the tools to take the victory, and if they can find the right break, they'll be hard to overpower on home roads. Devolder is an aspiring five-tool talent, and may do his Belgian countrymen proud with a surprise win. Steegmans meanwhile is a big, powerful Belgian capable of grinding his competition into submission. If he is around at the end of the race instead of Boonen, he is a good finisher in his own right.

Astana

The Astana team will have Serguei Ivanov leading the way in De Ronde, but the young Russian Vladimir Gusev will ride shotgun in case Ivanov has any problems. Gusev, like his former teammate at Discovery Stijn Devolder, is an aspiring five-tool guy, capable of doing it all when on good form. Gusev did suffer a collar bone break at the Tour of California, which hampered his classics preperation, but he has had ample time to rebuild and should be at the front on Sunday.

Cofidis

Sylvain Chavanel has been the high profile guy thus far in the early season for Cofidis, but his teammate Nick Nuyens will have official team captaincy at Flanders. Nuyens is looking very strong ahead of Flanders, and he was largely responsible for setting Chavanel up at the Dwars door Vlaanderen semi-classic. Nuyens has won on the cobbles before (Het-Volk 2005, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2006), and as a Belgian he'll be as pumped up as the rest of the local guys in the race.

Rabobank

Rabobank will ride for Juan Antonio Flecha, but Joost Posthuma, the 27 year old Dutchman, will be the clear number two for the orange and blue team. Posthuma sealed the overall win yesterday at the Three Days of De Panne stage race, after having finished second in 2007. Posthuma hasn' proven himself at Flanders, but if he was good enough to take the overall at De Panne, he can't be discounted as a contender for Flanders.

Lotto-Silence

Leif Hoste is a man under pressure. Riding with the weight of the world on his shoulders, Hoste will try to bag Flanders after having finished runner-up the past three years. He had a bad crash at De Panne, but will take the line on Sunday for Flanders. His teammate Greg Van Avermaet has been on good form, and despite his lack of experience has the raw form to stay with the best if Hoste can't keep up. Only 22, Van Avermat will have many more chances to tackle Flanders, but under the right circumstances the 2008 Tour of Flanders could be remembered as the race where Greg Van Avermaet came of age.

High Road

The High Road team brings an experienced team to Flanders, with American George Hincapie leading the team. Hincapie has had a good early season, winning at the Tour of California, but has remained in the background during the early Belgian classics. His time in the sport is running out, and Hincapie must realize that he only has a couple of more tries, at most, to win either Flanders or Roubaix. His form is a bit of a question mark, but he is always game at the Belgian monuments and will be there at the end again in 2008. If "Big George" can't cut it, Bernhard Eisel will be waiting in the wings. Eisel is undergoing a transition from a pure sprinter into a classics rider, a one day specialist. What better way to introduce himself to the Belgian fanbase than with a top five at Flanders?

Bring on the cobbles, bring on the pain!