Too soon to give 100% for the win; Belgian star will not defy radio ban
With the sunny preparation races in the Middle East over with, Tom Boonen (Quick Step) is now ready to start his season proper in the classics of northern Belgium. The former World champion will ride both of the races in the Belgian ‘Openingsweekend’ looking for his first victory in tomorrow’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and his third in Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.
While he finished 59th in last year’s Het Nieuwsblad, at the very back of the first big peloton, Boonen denies that this had anything to do with his form or commitment in the race.
“Last year I was already going well in the Omloop [Het Nieuwsblad],” he told Sporza at a pre-race press conference in Gent, Belgium, “but I had a puncture late on.”
Nevertheless, although he would surely like to add the first of Flanders’ big races to his not-inconsiderable list of victories, it’s not worth his while to concentrate too much on it to the detriment of bigger targets further on.
“I would like to do my utmost to win every year but it’s not that I absolutely have to win the Omleep once in my career,” he explained. “Actually the Omloop comes a too early to go for a good result; it distorts the preparation a bit.”
Boonen has started the year strongly, winning the opening stage of the Tour of Qatar, his first mass start race of the year. Boonen also recognises that a lot of his big rivals for the weekend’s races are going well too, but knows that he can rely on a strong Quick Step team.
“I’ve seen [Filippo] Pozzato do great things and [Greg] Van Avermaet is also going very well,” he said. “Within the team though, I’ve seen Nikolas Maes and Gert Steegmans doing well and I heard that [Niki] Terpstra and [Sylvain] Chavanel are there again. We have a lot of guys to send forward.”
Boonen and Quick Step were completely shut out of the big Belgian spring races last year, with Boonen having to be satisfied with second places at the E3 Prijs and the Ronde van Vlaanderen (as well as Milano-Sanremo). While the team lacks the experience that it once had, the Belgian is confident that things are improving for the blue and white squad.
“The days that Quick Step would bear the full weight of the race are behind us,” he conceded. “But in a year or so with this group we may well return to a dominant position. I definitely have a good feeling about this team.
“I hope I succeed this year,” he continued. “But I could reproach myself for nothing last year. In de Ronde I rode a beautiful race, but there’s a moment that you have to accept that you are beaten.”
Defying the radio ban would only hurt the riders, fans and race organisers
There has been a lot of talk in the last few days about some teams and riders defying the ban on two-way radios in all races outside the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour. While some riders may ride out of Gent on Saturday wearing radios though, Tom Boonen will not be one of them.
“There will be trouble,” he predicted, “but we are riders, so we ride.”
Defying the ban, he says is not a constructive way to protest as it would only hurt those who don’t deserve it.
“I’ll step forward on my bike without an earpiece,” he said. “With whom would we be messing with a boycott? Ourselves, the spectators and the [race] organisation.
“The people who we want to f**k with [the UCI – Ed] will just walk away.”
As far as risk is concerned, Boonen prefers to take as few as possible in the bunch sprints these days; if the opportunity is there though, he will still go for it.
“Personally, I take fewer risks now than when I was 21,” he said. “So I let the ‘kamikaze sprints’ go in Qatar and Oman. But once the wheat has been separated from the chaff, then I’m happy to sprint for victory.”