Fabian Cancellara had to settle for a support of a very young Trek Factory Racing team in the Hell of the North yesterday and despite their best efforts, ended up isolated in the decisive group of leaders as the race came to its conclusion. However, while pointing out that the absence of Stijn Devolder in the squad made a biggest difference, American team’s manager Dirk Demol was satisfied with performance of his riders.

While Omega Pharma-Quick Step made amends for their huge defeat in the Ronde van Vlaanderen over a week ago and managed to turn their strength in number into a victory this time around, after putting three riders into a leaders group with 10 kilometers before the finish, Cancellara found himself completely isolated und thus unable to response to any late attacks.

Demol pointed out that a presence of another strong rider in the squad, particularly Devolder, could have made a difference, but the Belgian champion was unable to line up at the Paris-Roubaix following crashes he suffered in the Ronde van Vlaanderen one week earlier.

A spectacular crash of Hayden Roulston, meant to play a key role in supporting Cancellara yesterday, was another blow for the Swiss classics specialist as it significantly decreased Trek Factory Racing options for the finale and forced him to chase the leading group after he was personally held up by the accident.

“The team did a really good job today,” Demol said.

“The problem was the first crash just after the forest I guess. We lost Roulston who was doing good in the forest. In the forest we had to give a bike to Grégory Rast who must have been going really well because from where he came back I don’t know how."

Despite the best efforts from his team, the 33-year old Swiss was isolated in the decisive stages of the race and couldn’t respond when Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) launched his victorious attack.

“All the other favourites had somebody with them,” said Demol, “but anyway I cannot blame the boys - the opposite: they rode very, very well.”