Tom Boonen sponsors charity race, gears up for winter
Saturday 4 December will be the date of the second annual Boonen and Friends Cyclo-Cross race at Silvermeer in Mol, Belgian. The Belgian cyclist sponsored and co-founded the race last year with Quick Step
sports director Wilfried Peeters. The 2009 edition raised more than 40,000 euros for Move to Improve, a non-profit organization based at Pellenberg’s University Hospital which supports children born with neuromotor problems.
"It was a huge success last year. I've only heard great things about it from riders, spectators and guests," said Boonen to
Cycling News. "That's why I have now managed to convince a lot of fellow riders to drop by Silver Lake and for once swap their racing bicycle for a 'cross bike.”
The race is primarily aimed at road cyclists rather than professional cyclo-cross riders, since it is a non-competitive, just-for-fun race. Boonen said that around 50 riders have already signed up, including
Andre Greipel, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Filippo Pozzato, Carlos Barredo and Sebastian Langeveld.
But charity isn't the only thing on his mind. Restless from inactivity, Boonen is looking forward to his race but also looking at participating into several winter events since his 2010 season was so light
on competition. The Belgian was forced to sit out most of the season after suffering a serious knee injury in the Tour of California in May and could only return to competition in September. With the season already winding down, Boonen didn’t have enough time
to get into form, but he was optimistic that he had overcome the knee problem and was ready for the winter training season.
“I have ambition, I’ll be easily motivated for the winter,” said Boonen. “I feel a kind of pressure, like I must do something, show something. But it comes mainly from myself. I feel little pressure from
the outside.”
He is now looking forward to the Tour Down Under, the unofficial season opener and the first major road race of the year, held in mid-January in Australia, long before the European roads open. His participation
in the Australian race means he will miss the Tour of Qatar for the first time in seven years, a streak which saw him win the event three times and earn a total of 16 stage wins. A specialist of the Belgian Classics, with three Paris-Roubaix victories and
two Tour of Flanders victories, Boonen is already thinking about the Tour de France in July.
"It will be a nervous Tour," said Boonen. “We will be immediately aware of the wind along the Atlantic coast and there is also the spectacular and treacherous Passage du Gois. In each stage there will
be a battle. The new rules for the Green Jersey will cause even more battles between the sprinters. In every stage a big sprint ends things, but there will be also one out on the road.”
It will be the Belgian’s first Grand Tour since 2008, when he won two stages in the Vuelta a Espana, and his first time racing the Tour de France since 2007, when he also won two stages and took the points
classification victory. He is intrigued and optimistic about the new points system change, which puts more weight on the intermediate sprints, which are reduced from three-per-stage to only one and will be worth a whopping 20 points.
“Whoever is trying for the green jersey will not only have to sprint over the finish line to take the stage, they will also have to sprint at the intermediate sprint that will assign important points up
to 15th places.” said Boonen. “For sprinters' teams it will be important to plan the race with tactics that don't leave too much room for fugitives to manoeuvre and collect important points.”
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