Knaven wins Paris-Roubaix

Bone-jarring cobbles add to the challenge

Dutchman Servais Knaven conquered atrocious wet conditions to win Sunday's Paris-Roubaix Classic, the third leg of this season's World Cup.

Knaven, riding for the Domo-Farm Frites team, clocked a provisional six hours 38 minutes 40 seconds for the 254.5km race, which was being contested for the 99th time.

"It's incredible what has happened to me," said the 30-year-old after the biggest success of his eight-year career.

Last year's winner Johan Museeuw of Belgium was second with Romans Vainsteins of Lithuania third as the Domo team completed a clean sweep.

This tactical victory was a personal trumph for team boss Patrick Lefevre, who set up the new team during the winter after leaving the world's richest squad, Mapei.

A fourth rider, Wilfred Peeters, was fifth, after attacking 87km from the finish and riding alone until 14km from Roubaix.

American George Hincapie, of US Postal, was the only non-Domo rider in the top five.

He, Belgian Ludo Dierckxsens (Lampre) and German Stefen Wesemann (Telekom) had to fight solo battles against the Domo quartet.

Domo beat former allies

They emulated Mapei, who have twice finished in a 1-2-3 fashion at Roubaix velodrome.

Lefevre, Belgian mastermind of Mapei's run of four victories in five years between 1996 and 2000, decided to split the highly successful team after last year's win.

He took took former Mapei riders like Museeuw, Peeters and current Belgian champion Axel Merckx back from Italy to their homeland.

These stars were merged with elements of the old Dutch TVM-Farm Frites team, including Knaven, plus new signings like world champion Vainsteins.

The new mix proved a much stronger Paris-Roubaix recipe than the remnants at Mapei.

Former Italian Paris-Roubaix winners Andrea Tafi and Franco Ballerini struggled.

Tafi, victor in 1999, finished 27th while Ballerini, a double former winner, will now retire from the sport after his 32nd place.

Broken leg

The race, which included 47km over cobblestones, is traditionally one of the toughest one-day events on the calendar and is known as "The Hell of the North".

It was made even harder this year by muddy and slippery surfaces.

One of these, in the notorious Arenberg Forest, accounted for leading French hope Phillippe Gaumont.

He suffered a broken leg in a fall on the same section where Museeuw received life-threatening injuries in the 1998 race.

The Belgian hardman recovered from this gangrenous knee to win in 2000 and then suffered a near-fatal motorcycle crash last August.

His runners-up slot in this race can only serve to increase his hero status in Belgium, and might have been first place were it not for a puncture with 16km remaining.

Britain's Max Sciandri, of Lampre, finished 12th and is now 14th in the World Cup standings.

Vainsteins now leads the 10-race series as it heads for round four, next Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege in Belgium.

Paris-Roubaix result:

1. Servais Knaven (Netherlands), Domo-Farm Frites, six hours 38 minutes 40 seconds
2. Johan Museeuw (Belgium), Domo-Farm Frites, +34 secs
3. Romans Vainsteins (Latvia), Domo-Farm Frites, +41
4. George Hincapie (US), US Postal, same time
5. Wilfried Peeters (Belgium), Domo-Farm Frites, same time
6. Ludo Dierckxsens (Belgium), Lampre, same time
7. Stefan Wesemann (Germany), Deutche-Telekom, same time
8 Andrei Tchmil (Belgium), Lotto, +2:35
9. Chris Peers (Belgium), Cofidis, same time
10. Rolf Sorenson (Denmark), CSC-WorldOnline, +2:59