Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) is pinning a race number on for the first time since crashing out of the Vuelta a España this week. The first stage of this weeks Tour de San Luis, in Argentina, will be the former World champion’s first competitive outing for almost five months, and as a former prolific winner, the 31-year-old can’t wait to raise his arms in victory again.
Having arrived in Argentina, the Belgian chose to eschew a training ride with his teammates; staying in the garage of the team’s hotel.
“The rest opted for a ride in the rain,” Boonen explained to Het Nieuwsblad. “But then you can’t train properly; not like a session on the rollers.”
This year’s San Luis is more star-studded than ever before, with riders like triple-Tour winner Alberto Contador choosing to start their seasons in South America; Boonen’s reasons for choosing to ride the race for the first time are clear.
“It was at my request, in December, that the team came here,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to the Tour Down Under, but I still wanted to take in a stage race before the Tours of Qatar and Oman; so I came to Argentina.
“I took this decision because, with the time difference at the Tour Down Under, it takes a week to recover from jet lag,” he explained. “It’s like being sick for a week in the pre-season; you interrupt your body too much.”
Boonen’s recent seasons have been blighted by bad crashes, with his Paris-Roubaix, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España ruined by meetings with the tarmac. His Tour crash saw him abandon the race with concussion, while the Vuelta one saw him break his wrist and ended his season.
By choosing to sit out the Tour Down Under, Boonen has avoided the major stage one pile up, which saw compatriot Jürgen Roelandts fracture a cervical vertebrae, and French veteran Frédéric Guesdon fracture his pelvis. This doesn’t mean that Boonen will be any safer where he is though, and he will be as vigilant as ever.
“But here, ten kilometres outside San Luis, you can easily hit a dog walking across the street and you’re on your back,” he reasoned.
Boonen’s aims for the Tour de San Luis are to mainly to get himself back into the swing of racing, and he has a variety of goals.
“One day I want to be in a mass sprint, and maybe go in a long escape in one stage,” he said. “Maybe the first day I’ll work for my roommate [Francesco] Chicchi, who won the opening stage two years ago. We’ll see.”
For a former World number one though, who was winning races for fun back in 2005 and 2006, Boonen is only too aware that his last victory came in last year’s Gent-Wevelgem, 271 days ago.
“[My hunger for victory is] great,” he acknowledged. “I’m fully aware of the importance of a first victory for the team.
“I know the feeling from experience; then the team immediately gets sucked into success; the sooner it comes, the better. If it doesn’t happen in Argentina or Qatar I won’t panic, as I know how hard I've worked this winter. I started back in mid-October, although in the beginning I was obviously not training five hours a day. I have enormous enthusiasm."
While he still has great ambitions for the rest of his career, Boonen is under no illusions as to the likelihood of a repeat of those peak years.
“I don’t know, I still have to prove himself,” he said. “Those two years I did basically what I wanted.
“Back then I asked myself no questions, it all seemed so normal. I think I had too much to handle; it was all too much in too short a time. It was good; I would not want to trade it.
“I sometimes went into races where I won three stages and the overall classification,” he added. “That was normal; I couldn’t try that again. In 2006 I took the Tour of Qatar stages all except one, plus the final classification.
“These were not normal times,” he concluded. “One victory here would make me very happy."