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Boonen: “Flanders harder to win than Roubaix”
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Tom Boonen’s race resume runs deep, having won races and stages around the world. Perhaps best known in the United States for his Tour de France stage wins and two victories at Paris-Roubaix, the Quick Step rider’s favorite race lies in his native Belgium, with the Tour of Flanders.
Why? “Because it’s my home country, and also it was the first really big classic that I won,” Boonen said on the eve of the 2009 Ronde van Vlaanderen. “Roubaix for me, maybe it sounds strange, but it’s easier to win because it’s a race where it gets easier with a really select group at the end. The door at the back is always open — riders are always getting dropped, getting dropped, getting dropped. And then with 40 Ks you’re looking around and there are maybe 15 or 10 guys left. Flanders is more difficult to win, because it is always possible to change, at any curve, any corner. It’s more my kind of thing.”
As the odds-on favorite for the win at Flanders, Boonen is a marked man. Such as situation last year arguably led to his teammate Stijn Devolder running away with the win. This year Devolder is back, as is Quick Step’s new-for-2009 Sylvain Chavanel and Kevin Van Impe.
“We can play multiple cards,” Boonen said. “Hopefully we can put it in our advantage.”
Even if there aren’t multiple Quick Step riders in at the kill, having a strong posse of men in blue and white at the front of the race early is a mental advantage over the other teams, Boonen said. “If you take all the hills with four or five guys in the front of the peloton,” he said, “you give a certain impression to the other riders in the peloton – we are here, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
Earlier in the week, other riders stated that the forecasted fair weather meant teamwork would be less of an issue. Boonen disagreed.
“The team is always important,” he said. “When I won my second Tour of Flanders, it was thanks to a lot of work from my teammates. It was also a nice sunny day. The race exploded completely in the final. I agree, in the final, it is up to the strong guys themselves. You cannot wait for your teammates the entire race. At a certain point you have to decide, this is the moment I start, and go for it.”
For this year’s edition, organizers changed the course a bit, adding more cobble sections and a few tight sections before the Kwaremont climb. Boonen said this could make it easier for the strong riders.
“It’s more cobblestone sections and more narrow roads to approach the Kwaremont — that’s the most difficult part of the race,” he said. “In the past few years it was always big roads and an unregulated field sprint leading into it. It’s really hard to get there in front. Now, I’m thinking the really hard section before the Kwaremont will make things a little more relaxed on the climb.”
Despite being a marked man, Boonen was relaxed Saturday evening.
“Every year that I’ve ridden the classics, it’s always with a team that is expected to do good,” he said. “I’m sure some guys would get nervous. But we just try to do our own thing. I get nervous, but maybe I don’t show it. For me it’s more like a motivation. I’m sure tomorrow morning I’m not the same as the other days in the year. But I’m not the type of person to get nervous. It motivates me and makes me a better rider.”
