Change of tactics for one, flat tires and bad lines for the other put fast men out of contention
The nice weather ensured that a large bunch sprint decided Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Two of the top favorites for such a race ending missed out on the victory or even the podium: Tom Boonen and Tyler Farrar. Boonen had no desire to sprint and decided to attack with six kilometers to go, but the move fizzled. Farrar had to stop twice in the sprint, being boxed in. He finished on the unthankful fourth place.
Farrar’s prediction was better than his result. Before the race he told Sporza the outcome would depend on the weather. “If it stays dry, there could be well 100 riders sprinting for the win.” There were 108 in Kuurne with the same time, to be exact. Farrar was fresh, having skipped the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad the day before.
But luck wasn’t on his side in the area where he lives. “I had two flats today,” he said. “I flatted at the foot of the Knokteberg and received the wheel from [Daniel] Lloyd. Together with [Travis] Meyer I chased back, but at the top of the Knokteberg I had a flat again.”
He was not too disappointed with missing the win. “Fourth is not that bad is it?,” the Gent-resident said. The Knokteberg did not knock him out but zapped energy that he lacked in the end. “The efforts I did there, meant I came up short in the sprint.” Farrar still had some hope left, but one unfortunate line meant it was all over for the American. “I still had god legs and went all out in the sprint. But when I went to pass on the right, I was boxed in.”
Farrar had the luxury of having Peter van Petegem as a director in the team car for the first time. “He knows all the roads by heart and his tactics were perfect, we just lacked a little bit of luck,” Farrar said.
Boonen decides to shed the sprinter in him
Boonen tried it differently by avoiding a sprint altogether. The winner of 2007 (large group sprint) and 2009 (small group sprint) tried to avoid sprinters like Farrar, André Greipel or Yauheni Hutarovich.
His move was quite a surprise to many, but Boonen maintained it was an earnest tactic. “It was an attack to win,” he said after the race. He joined forces with Jimmy Engoulvent, but the Saur-Sojasun rider had been in several break attempts before and was clearly spent. Boonen was pushing a huge gear, but with two kilometers to go it was over for the duo.
Boonen, who won several Tour de France sprints, has not much interest in the bunch kicks anymore. “I decided early on [today] to not sprint for the win. For quite some time I have lost the desire for that tinkering in the end,” Boonen said.
With over 100 men closing in on the finish line, Boonen said that he didn’t have a good time riding in the large group. “There were a lot of fresh cowboys in the peloton and it was a nervous fuss.”
So he jumped solo, surprising everyone. “Because I still had something left, I went after Engoulvent. I stayed on his wheel and lost my rhythm. It would have been better to just keep going.”