Tom Boonen wins the Belgian National Championships 2012
Tom Boonen became the Belgian National Champion for the second time in his career after his terrific performance this Sunday.
He completed the 253.3 kilometre Elite Men category of the race in an impressive time of 5 hours, 59 minutes and 7 seconds and occupied the top podium spot.
Kristof Goddaert of Team AG2R La Mondiale and Sven Vandousselaere of Team Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator finished at the same time and achieved the second and the third positions respectively.
Jan Bakelants of Team Radioshack-Nissan finished two seconds behind and secured the fourth position with Julien Vermote of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Gijs Van Hoecke of Team Vacansoleil-DCM achieving the next two spots.
"It was a very nice day but I was quite nervous. It took a lot of effort to get away,” Tom said to Sporza.
“Vermote struggled hard to join the breakaway as well but he managed to recover”.
“Together with the headwind he was crucial to control the others in the final lap".
"My hands were cramped in the final kilometer and I almost messed it up”.
“I shifted with 200m to go but dropped my chain. Luckily nobody noticed it. There still a lot of work to do but I'm on schedule [for the Olympics]”.
The Belgian’s first victory at the event came in 2009 but his victory on Sunday weighs much more because of the coming Olympics.
The 31-year-old is having a marvellous season and is building towards the biggest goal of his season, the 2012 Olympic Games.
Tom has already filled his bag with the first place finishes at the Tour of Qatar, Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders, the Gent-Wevelgem, the E3-Wevelgem and a second place finish at het Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
He also claimed stages at the Tour of Qatar, Tour de San Luis and the Paris-Nice to mark a perfect 2012 season.
The cyclist has opted out of the Tour de France and will divert his focus towards the 2012 Olympic Games.
Boonen is holding the second overall position at the UCI World Tour Elite Men rankings with 366 UCI points in his back pocket.
Joaquim Rodriguez is leading the category with 404 points with Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky holding the third spot with 335 points.
Boonen’s next big race before the Olympics will be the Tour of Pologne where he will fine-tune ahead of the mega event.
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