If Chris Froome has anything left to prove to anybody regarding his form ahead of the Tour de France then he did so today taking victory in the Tour of Romandie prologue. Froome won the uphill 7.45km prologue a comfortable 6 seconds ahead of second placed Andrew Talansky and 13 seconds ahead of third best placed rider Robert Kiserlovski...

 

This is the moment Dan Martin crossed the line ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde to take victory in today's Liege-Bastogne-Liege. It was the perfect tactical manoeuvre by Garmin-Sharp who sent Ryder Hesjedal up the road with 10km to go but was eventually caught on the final climb by a small select group including team-mate Dan Martin. Joaquim Rodriguez attacked on the final steep run in to the finish with over a kilometre to go and it looked like the race was over but Martin clawed back to his wheel, took a breath and attacked - amazingly riding away from Rodriguez who's legs were spent. It's a great win for Martin and for Ireland - it looks like the boy is finally coming good, we have long expected big things from him but having won the Tour of Catalunya in March and now a Monument in Liege-Bastogne-Liege it looks like he has finally arrived...

 

 

 

 

This is the moment 26 year old Roman Kreuziger crossed the finish to take victory in today's Amstel Gold race. A phenominal show of strength Kreuziger looked in amazing physical shape as he simply rode away from his break-away companions with 7km to go, never to be seen again. Kreuziger has been knocking on the door of stardom for a number of years and it's hard to believe he's still only 26. His move from Astana to Saxobank this year looks to have finally pushed him on and turned him into the rider we expected him to become. Today's race was great - an attack filled 250km which rewarded aggression leaving all of the favourites for dead. Sympathies to Thomas Voeckler who suffered a broken collarbone, Joaquim Rodriguez a thigh Contusion and Peter Sagan who's classics season seems to have come to an end without victory...

 

 

 

So it's goodbye to the cobbles for 2013, but if the Tour of Flanders was a borefest then Paris-Roubaix was the opposite. The race favourite eventually won but not until the last seconds as the suspense built throughout the race into the final 40km and remained until the game of 'stalemate' chess in the velodrome between Fabian Cancellara and Sep Vanmarcke. Cancellara tried to shake Vanmarcke in the closing kilometres but Sep held his wheel - Cancellara even looked liked the underdog as Vanmarcke is *usually* by far the better sprinter but Cancellaras experience on the boards showed and Vanmarcke clearly wasn't listening to me as I shouted at my television for him to stop taking turns on the front with 5km to go! Chapeau to both riders, though watching Vanmarcke come this far to lose on the line was a little gut-renching, the eventual winner was a deserved one. Spare a thought for Zdenek Stybar (OPQS) because this could well have been a three way sprint at the finish, had it not been for a collision with a spectator resulting in Stybar losing time - he looked to be the strongest of the three at that point too but this is the classics after all and anything can happen...

 

 

If today's climb was made for the steep-sprint specialists then stage 4 presents a summit finish for those who prefer long range attacks over a number of kilometres, but expect the same faces to be at the sharp end of the race as it's do or die for the GC contenders - especially those who are not so comfortable in the time trials. Here is a look at tomorrows finale on the Alto de Usartza...

 

 

The Tour of the Basque Country started today which can only mean one thing: It's carrot time! The orange clad Euskaltel Euskadi team are likely to be even more visible this week because of course this is their home tour. The Esukaltel team may have changed tactic in employing non-Basque riders this year, but the majority of the team are still Basque nationals and the spirit of the team is still very much Basque! I'm a big fan of the carrots and they come here, as suspected, with a very strong team including the likes of Samuel Sanchez and Igor Anton - the race is unlikely to be a complete orange domination though because it sports a serious start-list: Richie Porte, Thomas de Gendt, Andy Schleck, Teejay Van Garderen, Andrew Talansky, Nairo Quintana, Ryder Hesjedal, Romain Bardet, Jean-Christophe Peraud and of course Alberto Contador all line up at the start. Stay tuned for some stage previews and climb analysis throughout the week...