Although he was forced to sit out Sunday’s Herald Sun World Cycling Classic in Ballarat, just outside Melbourne, the Netherlands’ Lars Boom is confident about the chances of his team in the coming weekend’s World Championship race. The 24-year-old Dutchman has been suffering from the virus that made him miss the Grand Prix Isbergues on September 19th.
“A nice circuit with two steep and difficult hills,” was Boom’s verdict on the World Championship course to Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure. Despite his ten-days of sickness, the Dutchman feels that he will still be able to perform to his best in the race on Sunday.
“I think I can start with the ambition to go all the way,” he said. “The distance of 260km is not necessarily to my disadvantage; even if I’ve only been racing on the road for a couple of years, the long races suit me better and better.”
Although the Dutch team has no recognised favourite, with Robert Gesink withdrawing to stay fresh for the Giro di Lombardia and Laurens Ten Dam breaking his wrist in the recent Vuelta a España, Boom feels that the Dutch can still get something from the race.
“In my opinion our team has a chance,” said Boom, “when you take the start of a race you should always believe in yourself. We have some good riders who have just finished the Vuelta a España and so are in good shape. So, why not?”
Boom has, of course, already been World champion, winning the cyclocross rainbow jersey in Treviso, Italy in 2008. To win the rainbow jersey on the road though, is something else, and something that he dreams of as much as the rest of the peloton.
“All riders aspire to become World champion and I am of course no different,” he said. “If I succeeded it would be completely different from cross because road is so much bigger. This, to me, is the most prestigious thing that we can achieve as cyclists, along with the Tour de France.”
With no big favourites, there are also no big egos in the Netherlands team; the pressure is on the favourites’ teams like the Belgians, the Italians and the Spanish. If the oranjes can hang on to the pace set by these teams an upset could be on the cards; we could be looking at the first Dutch elite men’s World champion since Joop Zoetemelk in 1985.
Netherlands team for elite men’s World Championships:
Koos Moerenhout, Jos van Emden, Lars Boom, Karsten Kroon, Sebastian Langeveld, Niki Terpstra, Koen de Kort, Steven Kruijswijk, Wout Poels