Quick Step sprinter goes down in finishing straight chaos but escapes injury this time
One of the many riders to hit the tarmac in the finishing straight of the seventh stage if the Vuelta a España in Talavera de la Reina was Quick Step’s sprinter Tom Boonen. The Belgian former World champion was unable to avoid the carnage in front of him, caused by the coming together of Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo) and Michal Golas (Vacansoleil-DCM) as they struggled to come to terms with eventual stage winner Marcel Kittel (Skil-Shimano).
“In the last kilometres there were a series of swerves due to the tension in the group,” explained Boonen after the stage. “[Nikolas] Maes tried to lead me in the finish but when the group made a sudden move I lost his wheel.
“Right afterward Farrar fell, I was coming up from behind and I couldn’t avoid crashing, along with several other riders,” he continued. “It’s too bad; this was a lost opportunity. In the next two days I’m going to have to tough it out on the mountains before getting to a route that’s to my advantage after the time trial.”
The fact that Boonen is merely disappointed about the lost opportunity is a change from some of the last occasions that he has crashed. In the 2010 Tour de Suisse he was brought down by a crash in the Tour of California, which was later exacerbated as he was caught behind the controversial incident involving Mark Cavendish and Heinrich Haussler at the Tour de Suisse. The resulting knee injury required surgery, which caused him to miss the Tour de France, and most of the second half of the season.
In this year’s Tour de France, the former World champion came down in one of many crashes in the first week, hitting his head hard on the road. He managed to limp to the finish that day, but was forced to abandon the next through concussion.
The fact that Boonen has hit the tarmac and come away unscathed is cause for celebration indeed for the Quick Step team.
Quick Step continues to hold the race lead through Sylvain Chavanel. The French champion narrowly avoided crashing himself, although he was forced to brake hard and hurriedly unclip both feet from the pedals.
“Tomorrow will be a different day, definitely more complicated,” said Chavanel, whose Tour de France was also ruined by a first week crash. “As always I’ll try to defend the jersey, but if I should lose it I won’t make a big deal out of it. In this Vuelta there are thousands of possibilities to shine.”