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Roubaix - Belgian star Tom Boonen, riding for Quick Step, won the 259km Paris-Roubaix classic race for the third time on Sunday.
Boonen came through in a dramatic finale which saw three potential champions crash inside the final 18km.
He made the decisive break with 46km to go, then overcame a mechanical problem to see off Italian Filippo Pozzato by some 47sec and Norwegian Thor Hushovd by over one minute.
Australian-born German contender Heinrich Haussler, of Cervelo and Quick Step leader Boonen were pivotal in the final third of the race where they took turns in forcing the pace in a bid to drop their respective rivals.
After much tactical coming and going after a 10-man breakaway had been caught inside the final 70km Boonen increased the tempo on the Mons-en-Pevele cobbled sector, the 10th last of the 27 in the race, taking five potential winners along for the ride.
The Belgian's move left him isolated, but perhaps that was the price to pay for dropping all three Saxo Bank riders - Fabian Cancellara, the 2006 winner, Matti Breschel and Kasper Klostergaard - whose presence in the larger group minutes earlier had posed a major threat to his bid to win the race for a third time.
In Hushovd, Pozzato and Juan Antonio Flecha of Spain, Boonen had some quality rivals for company.
Pozzato, whose marking of Boonen during the Tour of Flanders last week effectively stymied the Belgian's bid for a third win there, was looking especially strong.
Boonen overcame potential disaster a few kilometres further on as they approached the sixth from last sector when he suffered a mechanical problem and was frantic as he made a quick change of bike.
It took him two full-on kilometres to catch back on to the lead group, which by now had a lead of nearly 1:30 on their pursuers.
With 17.5km remaining all collaboration appeared to have come to an end when Flecha, a two-time podium finisher, pulled ahead of the group taking Johan Van Summeren of Silence with him.
Less than a kilometre further on the victory hopes of Flecha, Van Summeren and Silence teammate Leif Hoste and Hushovd bit the dust in dramatic fashion as the Spaniard went too fast into a left hand bend and crashed to the ground.
Boonen just managed to avoid the carnage as Hoste hit the ground and Van Summeren waited for his teammate.
That left Hushovd alone up front with Boonen, but just as their duel appeared to be emerging disaster struck Hushovd, the Norwegian hitting the ground after clashing with the barriers on a tight left-hand bend.
Boonen was left on his own to ride through the throngs of Flemish fans with 15km to go, but on his wheel only 100m behind Pozzato emerged from the dust in what proved a vain attempt to catch him.
Marring the race was an accident which left ten people hurt, three of them seriously, caused when a motorbike crashed into fans lining the route near the northern town of Orchies.
"A motorbike from the race organisation struck the crowd," a spokesman for Lille emergency services told AFP, saying he had no further details on the extent of the injuries.
