Boonen completes remarkable treble in Madrid

CYCLING/World Championship: Belgian hope Tom Boonen completed the remarkable treble of World Championship, Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders yesterday when he sprinted to a clear victory in the elite road race in Madrid. The 24-year-old Belgian outpaced the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde and French surprise Anthony Geslin in the dash to the line, beating these and 20 others at the end of the 273-kilometre event.

Irish rider Mark Scanlon rode strongly but was frustrated by an attack of cramp with three kilometres to go. He had been in a second group alongside pre-race favourites such as Alessandro Petacchi (Italy) and Robbie McEwen (Australia), but the 24-year-old was forced to ease back because of the problem and was placed 75th. "I was in the bunch behind Boonen's group but at the big roundabout near the finish I had to stop because I cramped," he said. "I should have been in that group sprinting for 28th, so I'm a bit disappointed."

Scanlon can, nevertheless, take encouragement from what was a good ride at the end of a difficult, injury- and illness-affected season. Fellow Irishmen David McCann and David O'Loughlin were among the 58 non-finishers.

Meanwhile, Philip Deignan provided further proof of his talent when he placed a highly impressive ninth in the under-23 championship on Saturday. He was in the running for a medal inside the final five kilometres, setting off in pursuit of lone leader Dmytro Grabovskyy (Ukraine) with the Australian Chris Sutton. However, both were caught by the rest of their small breakaway group. Sutton's team-mate Will Walker counterattacked and slipped away with Evgeny Popov (Russia), taking second and third behind Grabovskyy. Deignan just held off the main bunch to take that top-10 finish.

"Ninth isn't bad but I'm a bit disappointed as I was right up there," said Deignan, who suffered an attack of cramp with five kilometres to go. "I was clear with an Australian near the end but we were caught. I missed a counter attack and that was that, really. I would have had a better chance on a harder course - I was going well on the hills but they weren't really long enough or hard enough today."

Ireland's Ryan Connor rode aggressively all day and finished the race, while Paídi O'Brien sacrificed his chances to help Deignan get going quickly after his flat. He gave him his wheel, got a spare and was chasing back onto the main bunch when he crashed.

Irish rider Andrew McQuaid also fell. He withdrew from the race, as did Miceal Concannon. Siobhan Dervan was a non-finisher in the elite women's event, won by Regina Schleicher (Germany) ahead of Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) and Oenone Wood (Australia).