Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard), the biggest pre-race favourite of them all, won the 100th edition of the Ronde van Vlaanderen on Sunday, discarding fellow favourite Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Jürgen Roelandts on the third and final climb on the Paterberg and powering to victory in majestic solitude.

The trio had been off the chasing pack going into the Paterberg after Cancellara’s formidable acceleration on the last climb on the Oude Kwaremont, but the bunch was closing fast.

On the Paterberg Cancellara ignited his afterburner and Roelandts quickly faded. Sagan stuck in there a bit longer, barely hanging on, and crossing the top Cancellara had opened a gap and the big Swiss went into time-trial mode and powered away, building a gap of more than a half minute with 10 km to go.

Sagan and Roelandts did well to keep the chasing pack at bay but they had no chance to reel Cancellara back in. “Spartacus” had left the building, and he would not return!

More than a minute down, Roelandts and Sagan were left to fight for second place. Roelandts tried to catch Sagan off guard but the Cannondale confidently rider took second, while Roelandts had to settle for third.

After the race Cancellara was, to the surprise of nobody, quite pleased with his win after crashing out of the race last year. “The goal was to win and sometimes you can’t predict how things are coming,” Cancellara said in a TV-interview right after the race. “It’s just amazing. One year ago I was on the ground. Now I’m back. I did what I had to do — bring this Ronde van Vlaanderen home.”

Early in the race, Belgian hearts were broken as Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) crashed out of the race, thus completing a truly miserable start to 2013. Boonen was taken to hospital but nothing has been broken. Early reports indicate that Boonen will miss the rest of this season’s spring classics, though.

Result:

1 Fabian Cancellara - RadioShack Leopard 6.05.58

2 Peter Sagan - Cannondale 1.28

3 Jürgen Roelandts - Lotto Belisol 1.30

4 Alexander Kristoff - Katusha 1.38

5 Matthieu Ladagnous - FDJ

6 Heinrich Haussler - IAM Cycling

7 Greg Van Avermaet - BMC Racing Team

8 Sebastian Turgot - Team Europcar

9 John Degenkolb - Argos-Shimano

10 Sebastian Langeveld - Orica-GreenEdge