Boonen triumphs in Paris-Bruxelles

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Belgian champion Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) won Paris-Bruxelles for the first time in his career, notching his 13th victory of the 2012 season in the process. The 31-year-old Belgian beat Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) and Oscar Freire (Katusha) with a bike throw, powering up the middle of the field in the final meters.

"I stayed in the safe zone, out of trouble until the last kilometers," Boonen said. "After a week of hard training I didn't know what I could expect from this race, but today we decided to try and go for a win. We worked in the final really hard for the sprint. The guys were great, perfect team work.

"The finish here at Paris-Brussel is not so easy. The team led me perfectly until the last corner. [Nikolas] Maes literally killed everybody during the lead-out. His job permitted me to pass the train of Rabobank and have a good sprint.

"I'm satisfied about my performance," continued Boonen. "This race was missing in my palmares. It's an important Classic and it's nice to have it on my personal list. In the next days I still have some work to do to improve. I will do a few good training days at the beginning of this week and on Wednesday I will race. Then I will focus on the TTT Worlds and then on the Worlds road race. I'm really looking forward to the next two weeks."

Renshaw was denied victory in his final race of the 2012 season, coming up just short in the finale. The 29-year-old Rabobank sprinter returns to his native Australia where his wife is expecting to give birth to their first child at any moment.

"You can see that our sprint train took some big steps this season," said Rabobank directeur sportif Nico Verhoeven. "We went into the final kilometer with four men at the front of the peloton. Everything is right. It was just a pity it wasn't Graeme Brown's day today. He had to pass too early, which caused Theo Bos to lead too early, which on its turn resulted in Mark Renshaw being alone too quickly.

"In the end we're only talking about fifty meters, but it still made a big difference. Especially because you also still have to deal with a super Tom Boonen. It was a pity for Mark, because we would have been happy to give him a victory in his last race."

An early break of five riders was comprised of Lars Bak (Lotto Belisol), Craig Lewis (Champion System Pro Cycling Team), Reto Hollenstein (Team NetApp), Georg Preidler (Team Type 1-Sanofi) and Kevin Thome (Wallonie Bruxelles-Credit Agricole). The quintet's lead at one point extended to eight minutes, but the teams of the sprinters ensured the catch was made in advance of the finale to set up their respective fast men.