Belgian sprinter forced out for the fourth time in six appearances.
Still suffering from the injuries he sustained in a crash on stage five, Tom Boonen (Quick Step) has been forced to abandon the Tour de France. The Belgian sprinter hit the tarmac inside 70km to go on the stage to Cap Fréhel on the north coast of Brittany. It was feared at first that he had broken his collarbone, but it proved not to be so and he was able to restart; he had hit his head on the road though, breaking his helmet, and was covered in contusions and abrasions down his right side.
Boonen struggled through yesterday’s rainy sixth stage to Lisieux, but finally climbed off his bike after 90km of today’s stage.
“Yesterday just after the finish I felt good, it felt like everything was going to be resolved soon,” Boonen explained. “But in the evening I started feeling worse. Last night I hardly slept, I had a headache and pain in my back and shoulders. This morning I tried getting back on my bike anyway, but during the race I wasn’t lucid; I didn’t feel safe.
“My head started spinning and I couldn’t keep my concentration. I hung out towards the back of the group but it was too dangerous to continue in these conditions, for me as well as for the rest of the group.”
Despite being one of the most successful riders of his generation, Boonen has rarely been able to perform to a high level at the Tour. In his six participations in the race he has only been able to finish on two occasions; although he won two stages in each of the 2004, 2005 and 2007 races, wore the yellow jersey for four days in 2006, and won the green jersey in 2007, he has not won a stage since then.
The 2005 World champion has been forced out of the race by crashes in 2005, 2006, 2009 and now this year, while he was forced to sit the whole race out last year, having injured his knee in crashes at the Tour of California and the Tour de Suisse. He was also prevented from starting the race in 2008, thanks to an out of competition positive for the recreational drug cocaine.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Boonen. “I prepared well for this Tour and I think I could have definitely had some chances to go for it. The Tour is like that, the first week is always complicated to interpret, but I like this race and I’ll be back. Now I want to recuperate as best I can and reconsider my schedule for the following weeks.
“The work I did to get in shape for this Tour will come back to me and be useful in the near future,” he added.
On returning home, the Belgian will undergo further medical tests on Monday.
In other bad news for the Quick Step team, French champion Sylvain Chavanel, who won two stages in last year’s race and took the yellow jersey both times, is also considering abandoning with the after effects of the same crash.
Additionally, the crash that saw Sky’s Bradley Wiggins abandon with a broken collarbone also saw Addy Engels, Dries Devenyns and Gerald Ciolek come down. Luckily though, neither was hurt, although it cost Ciolek his chance to sprint for the stage.