Sunday, April 02, 2006
The Problem with Boonen
“Is a rider named Tom Boonen at the start?”
“Yep.”
“Then I have a problem.”
The sentiment was shared by many more than Erik Zabel at the start of the Tour of Flanders today, and the problems only grew with the miles. Consider the predicament Discovery Channel found themselves in. Leif Hoste, the newly crowned winner of the Three Days of DePanne, launched a successful attack from the lead group of riders, only to find the aforementioned Boonen stuck on his back wheel. But it was probably Disco’s best card, since a counter move from Hincapie to bring back Boonen only would have twoed up Boonen’s teammates Paolo Bettini and Filippo Pozato, not to mention other big guns like Peter Van Petegem and Alessandro Ballan. Quick Step once again had the ProTour peloton caught in a vice, and proceeded to turn the screws…
In short, Boonen is the perfect rider these days: a fast finisher, he is similarly capable of attacking, counter-attacking, and making sure he is in all the right moves. (Hey, don’t blame me if you click through.) Unlike other sprinters-turned-classics riders (read: Erik Zabel), he is not content riding a passive race, hoping to use a sprint at the end. As in Flanders last year and Harleberke this year, he is equally capable of initiating the winning break and pressing home a winning flyer. Coupled with an incredibly strong Quick Step team that holds more cards than should be legal in the one day races, Boonen has become a virtually unstoppable force.
For good reason he will once again be the odd’s on favorite next week for the Queen of the Classics – Paris-Roubaix. True enough, the winner of the Hell of the North often times has a fair bit of luck on their side. But in Boonen’s case, he is often able to fashion his own luck. Consider again the current edition of Flanders, where the Koppenberg forced three-quarters of the elite professional cyclists contesting the race were forced to dismount and push their rides, “like grandmothers on their way to the bakery,” in the description of Radsport-news.com. Knowing the potential for a logjam to force the de facto winning break, Boonen ensured that he was at the head of affairs when the race hit the fabled climb.
Perhaps the only thing that will eventually contain Boonen is geography. In a few weeks, the calendar brings us the Ardennes races with Amstel Gold, Felche Wallone, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege – complete with enough hills to clip the World Champion’s wings.
But while those races will also serve as a barometer for the men who seek to succeed Lance as the overall winners of the Tour de France, in a similar fashion, Boonen has already laid a claim for his own share of Armstrong’s vacated place at the head of cycling’s elite table. Just as in the past few years riders seemed content to be riding for second place at Le Tour, pretenders to the classics titles can only laugh at the “problem” they have when Boonen is also contesting the race. And one can only imagine the despair of the poor sap gone in a two-up break away with the rainbow jersey. As if the outcome was ever in doubt.
“Yep.”
“Then I have a problem.”
The sentiment was shared by many more than Erik Zabel at the start of the Tour of Flanders today, and the problems only grew with the miles. Consider the predicament Discovery Channel found themselves in. Leif Hoste, the newly crowned winner of the Three Days of DePanne, launched a successful attack from the lead group of riders, only to find the aforementioned Boonen stuck on his back wheel. But it was probably Disco’s best card, since a counter move from Hincapie to bring back Boonen only would have twoed up Boonen’s teammates Paolo Bettini and Filippo Pozato, not to mention other big guns like Peter Van Petegem and Alessandro Ballan. Quick Step once again had the ProTour peloton caught in a vice, and proceeded to turn the screws…
In short, Boonen is the perfect rider these days: a fast finisher, he is similarly capable of attacking, counter-attacking, and making sure he is in all the right moves. (Hey, don’t blame me if you click through.) Unlike other sprinters-turned-classics riders (read: Erik Zabel), he is not content riding a passive race, hoping to use a sprint at the end. As in Flanders last year and Harleberke this year, he is equally capable of initiating the winning break and pressing home a winning flyer. Coupled with an incredibly strong Quick Step team that holds more cards than should be legal in the one day races, Boonen has become a virtually unstoppable force.
For good reason he will once again be the odd’s on favorite next week for the Queen of the Classics – Paris-Roubaix. True enough, the winner of the Hell of the North often times has a fair bit of luck on their side. But in Boonen’s case, he is often able to fashion his own luck. Consider again the current edition of Flanders, where the Koppenberg forced three-quarters of the elite professional cyclists contesting the race were forced to dismount and push their rides, “like grandmothers on their way to the bakery,” in the description of Radsport-news.com. Knowing the potential for a logjam to force the de facto winning break, Boonen ensured that he was at the head of affairs when the race hit the fabled climb.
Perhaps the only thing that will eventually contain Boonen is geography. In a few weeks, the calendar brings us the Ardennes races with Amstel Gold, Felche Wallone, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege – complete with enough hills to clip the World Champion’s wings.
But while those races will also serve as a barometer for the men who seek to succeed Lance as the overall winners of the Tour de France, in a similar fashion, Boonen has already laid a claim for his own share of Armstrong’s vacated place at the head of cycling’s elite table. Just as in the past few years riders seemed content to be riding for second place at Le Tour, pretenders to the classics titles can only laugh at the “problem” they have when Boonen is also contesting the race. And one can only imagine the despair of the poor sap gone in a two-up break away with the rainbow jersey. As if the outcome was ever in doubt.
