Tom Boonen to skip the Tour de France and will ride the Tour of Poland instead
Tom Boonen is the most successful cyclist of the current season considering the fact that he has bagged as many ten victories in the first half of the season.
The Belgian has noted that the 2012 Olympic Games is his ultimate goal of the season and he will settle for nothing less than the gold medal at the mega event.
The cyclist has also briefed that he will prefer riding the Tour of Poland instead of the Tour de France before representing his nation at the London Olympics.
Tour de France starts on June 30 and the three-week race will conclude on July 22, while the Tour de Poland is scheduled from July 10-16.
Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider had to pick one between the two races and he opted for the Polish race.
Cyclingnews quoted him as saying, "I think it will be better, I'm not the kind of guy who gets better in the mountains".
"I still want to do the Tour in the future, but I don't think it's the right race for me to prepare for the Olympics".
"It is also not in the right team. We have a lot of GC guys now and it wouldn't be fair to take somebody's spot just to train a little bit or to try and take one or two sprints”.
“So I think the best solution is to do an alternative program for the Olympics", he concluded.
The 31-year-old currently holds the top spot at the UCI Elite Men ranking with a total number of 366 UCI points in his back pocket.
Vincenzo Nibali of Team Liquigas-Cannondale (272 points) holds the second position while Samuel Sanchez (252) of Team Euskaltel-Euskadi and Peter Sagan (229) of Team Liquigas-Cannondale secured the third and the fourth positions.
Tom has never participated at the Olympic Games and is determined to mark his debut at the mega event this summer.
Boonen missed out during the 2004 and the 2008 editions of the event as he was busy defending his green jersey at the Tour de France.
The London Olympics are scheduled from July 28 to August 12 and only will tell if Tom continues his winning momentum at the biggest sports event of the year.
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