Quick Step leader Tom Boonen has had a quiet first two days in the Tour de Suisse, with the Belgian choosing to hold back and try to protect a troublesome right knee.
He crashed heavily at the end of stage one of the Tour of California on May 16th, and pulled out of the race five days later. The Tour de Suisse marked his return to competition but things are still not right. In order to protect the troublesome joint, he has held back somewhat; he was 142nd in the prologue, losing one minute and ten seconds to Fabian Cancellara, and then trailed in nine minutes and 34 seconds down yesterday.
Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad and Het Laaste Nieuws, he said that he is pleased to be able to continue in the race. “I did not abandon today and I am happy,” he said after the stage. “The right knee is still very painful after the fall in California. I have to just survive this week. I trained for many hours after California but not at an intensive level.”
Boonen traditionally uses the Tour de Suisse as his preparation race for the Tour de France, and won a stage there in 2006. Grabbing another victory would have given him a nice morale boost prior to the Tour – particularly if he beat Mark Cavendish to do so – but he is going to have to play things quietly this week.
He still hopes to defend his national title on June 27th, although he appears to think his chances have narrowed. However he is confident that he will make it to the start of the Tour de France.
“I'm not worried,” he said. “The Belgian championship is June 26 in Leuven. That allows me to get myself ready as it is a week before the Tour. There are three weeks left and I an convinced that I will be capable of using those as well as possible.”
Boonen has not had much fortune in recent years with the Tour. He was blocked from riding in 2008 after testing positive for cocaine. He took the start last year but was practically anonymous as a sprinter, netting a best stage finish of 16th before pulling out of the race.
He’ll hope that things go better this time round, but his knee problems will make things more complicated than if he had no injury issues.