Belgian happy with progress after injury-plagued season
Quick Step team leader Tom Bonnen is bringing the curtain down on his 2010 season, ending his racing today in the Putte-Kapellen event. “I’m giving up on the Tour of Piedmont and the Giro di Lombardia,” he told DH Sports.
The 2005 world road race champion has had a very disrupted season due to knee injury. It first surfaced when he crashed in the Tour of California, then reared up again when he was brought down in the Tour de Suisse.
As a result, he was forced to abandon his plans to try to repeat his 2009 win in the Belgian championships. More importantly, he also had to scratch from the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España and the world championships.
The 29 year old returned to competition on September 30th in the Circuit Franco Belge. He had a quiet race, but the most important thing for him was to get the legs moving again and end the year with some good kilometres in his legs.
He then rode Paris-Tours at the weekend. Last year, Boonen was second behind Philippe Gilbert; this time round, he was 7 minutes 15 seconds back in 135th place, yet was not too worried about that result. Competing pain free was a big boost, and shows he is on track.
He’s now looking forward to the chance to build his condition and make a big push for Classic success in 2011. “A few more laps in Kapellen and my season is over. Although, I still have to complete a period of rehabilitation after my knee injury. I want to have a good winter and be back renewed next season.”
Boonen’s 30th birthday is this Friday and he will now be able to celebrate that at home.
While the Belgian missed a substantial chunk of racing, he nevertheless racked up some good results for Quick Step. He won stages in the Tours of Qatar and Oman, finishing third overall in the former, picked up a win on day two of Tirreno-Adriatico, finished second in both Milan-Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders, and placed fifth in Paris-Roubaix.
His biggest regret this season may well be missing out on riding the worlds. “You only get two or three chances in life to be world champion,” he told Sporza. “This was perhaps my second. It is always easy to talk about it in hindsight, but if I was in shape, I would have been in that group [from which Hushovd triumphed].”
He however has another chance next season. The worlds road race will be held in Copenhagen on a course which has been described as very good for sprinters.