IIRC, the riders who got disqualified WERE beside themselves. And it remains a strange decision. Thank goodness Cancellara was long gone; I believe he had 40" at that point and never did let up.

Hey, it gets worse. That book I reviewed talks of an episode in 1949 or 50 where the leading trio was waved off course right before the velodrome, and disqualified, even though the marshall screwed up, not them. Serse Coppi was given the win, but then they made dual winners for reasons I still don't understand. Fausto didn't like it and dished out some serious payback the next year.

Is this a great sport or what?

that train issues are a possibility this year as well!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/apr08/apr11news2

I thought Boonen's reaction to the ruling was very classy:

Tom Boonen ended up second, thanks to the disqualifications, but said, "I'm not happy with it. It was not deserved, I was dropped. I wasn't as super as I was last week in the Ronde, but good enough to win. I spent too much energy unnecessarily. I nearly crashed and felt cramp after that. I'm choked with dust. It was stressful all the time."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/apr06/roubaix06/?id=results

I thought the race officials' ruling was a good one.  The two Discovery riders and Van Petegem disobeyed the command of the race marshall that they stop, while the Boonen group didn't go through the crossing until the train had passed and the marshall waived them through.  

At some point, the rules have to be enforced for the safety of the riders.  As Flecha, Ballan and Boonen approached the crossing, Flecha was clearly preparing to go around the gate, and almost certainly had his life saved when the marshall dove in front of him and blocked his passage, just as the train came zooming past.

Could very well be the first volley fired by the UCI at ASO. I believe if you find a video and look closely at the train the conductor is in fact Pat MacQuaid and he is flipping the bird at the race official.

So much so that I'm going through my 2005 pics (when I had just a point& shoot camera) instead of working:

Querenaing

They're finally here

Big Maggie

THE velodrome  - which was much smaller than I expected

at Chemin des Orchies:

Tifosa has it pegged.

The Hoste group blew right past a race marshall who was vigorously waving at them to stop. Then, as soon as the train passed, the marshall waved the Boonen group through.

So if my memory serves us the whole "Boonen crossed while the arm was down too" argument is a complete red herring. Hoste (0/), De Peet, and Goose crossed despite the marshall's vigorous warning. The chase group went when given permission.

Of course, it was clear that Cance was strongest and the Hoste, Goose, PVP group were stronger than the folks that got dropped. So I won't say that Boonen deserved 2nd, but I will contend that the three earned their dqs.

Here's an .mp4 of the 2006 train incident.

-Greg