Boonen adds Paris-Brussels to his palmares

The Omega Pharma-Quick-Step rider prevailed in the sprint at the conclusion of the 216km race after some strong work by his team-mates in the final few kilometres.

Boonen held off 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," said Boonen.

"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. Maes literally killed everybody during the leadout. His job permitted me to pass the train of Rabobank and have a good sprint.

“I’m satisfied about my performance. 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."

Boonen's next target is the team time trial and road race at the UCI Road World Championships in The Netherlands in a week.

While an early five rider break managed to establish an eight minute lead their effort came to nought as the teams of the key sprinters worked hard to ensure the race was not won without them.

Paris-Brussels: 216.8km: Soissons-Bruxelles
1 Tom Boonen (BEL) OmegaPharma-Quickstep 4hr 55min 59sec     
2 Mark Renshaw (AUS) Rabobank           
3 Oscar Freire Gomez (ESP) Katusha           
4 Michael Van Staeyen (BEL) Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator           
5 Manuel Belletti (ITA) AG2R La Mondiale           
6 Jean-Pierre Drucker (LUX) Accent Jobs-Willems Veranda's           
7 Alessandro Bazzana (ITA) Team Type 1-Sanofi           
8 André Schulze (GER) Team NetApp           
9 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (NED) Vacansoleil-DCM           
10 Rafael Andriato (BRA) Farnese Vini-Selle Italia