Belgian champion Tom Boonen has had a disappointing relationship with the Tour de France in recent years, missing the race in 2008 due to the fallout from a positive test for cocaine and performing anonymously in 2009 due to the same reason. It’s now possible that he could miss the 2010 edition of the event, with a troublesome knee problem lingering and causing him concern.
“I am not currently thinking of giving up the Tour de France, but if the pain comes back after the Belgian championship, then I would seriously consider it,” he said, according to Sporza. “I will ride the championships on Sunday to know where I stand.”
Boonen’s race programme has been disrupted by an aggravation to his knee, which was originally injured in a crash in the Tour of California and then irritated again when he crashed in the Tour de Suisse.
A collision between Mark Cavendish (HTC Columbia) and Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo Test Team) brought themselves down, as well as Boonen and many others. The finger of blame was pointed at Cavendish by the UCI, who fined and penalised him, but ironically he appears to have come off better than Haussler and Boonen. Both are suffering the after-effects of the crash.
Boonen has been forced to miss Halle-Ingooigem today, but is expected to be able to train tomorrow.
"After the crash in the Tour of Switzerland, I feel a gnawing pain in my left knee,” he explained. “That's pretty annoying, because no one knows where that discomfort comes from. There’s not much more than I can do than some stretching.
"It is depressing that I’m thinking constantly about it, because a sign of pain means that something is damaged or that there is an infection.”
Boonen has won six stages in the Tour de France, as well as the points classification in 2007. He has been riding strongly this season, netting second in both Milan-Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders, and has picked up four wins. These are two stages in the Tour of Qatar, and one each in the Tour of Oman and Tirreno-Adriatico.
If he gets through the Belgian championship without problems, he should be in line for a strong Tour. If he misses the July race, he’ll have to refocus his season around trying to take a second world title.