Boonen out

FJS
FJS Posts: 4,820
edited July 2009 in Pro race
Maybe some time for reflection for Tommeke...

Sporza reporting he's stepping out of the Tour sick this morning.

After so much legal work and controversy to get him in his Tour amounts to just a long series of crashes and half-contested sprints

Comments

  • Stuey01
    Stuey01 Posts: 1,273
    FJS wrote:
    half-contested sprints

    Not sure he even managed that did he?
    Not climber, not sprinter, not rouleur
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    Still seen more of Boonen in the two weeks than any other Quick-Step rider.


    He got a cold in week one and has abandoned for "intestinal problems" apparantly.
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • jon208
    jon208 Posts: 335
    Are Quickstep in it this year? They must have borrowed the invisibility cloak used by most of the Silence Lotto team last year.
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    Bet he's in the pub by now.
  • avalon
    avalon Posts: 345
    Bet you will be later.
    or maybe not.
    what's the legal age these days?
  • bikerZA
    bikerZA Posts: 314
    He's got some serious clubbing to catch up on.
    cyclecomparison.com
  • OffTheBackAdam
    OffTheBackAdam Posts: 1,869
    Needs to get his head straightened out. He was a beaten man from the start. I caught sight of him at a stage finish, on one of Eurosport's head-on shots, he was in the middle of the also-rans and just muttered something & sat up.
    His interviews also showed that he was mentally beaten, saying he lacked the necessary speed to compete.
    Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.
  • robmanic1
    robmanic1 Posts: 2,150
    edited July 2009
    OffTheBackAdam wrote:
    Needs to get his head straightened out. He was a beaten man from the start. I caught sight of him at a stage finish, on one of Eurosport's head-on shots, he was in the middle of the also-rans and just muttered something & sat up.
    His interviews also showed that he was mentally beaten, saying he lacked the necessary speed to compete.

    Jeez, he's not on that as well is he?
    Pictures are better than words because some words are big and hard to understand.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/34335188@N07/3336802663/
  • tarquin_foxglove
    tarquin_foxglove Posts: 554
    OffTheBackAdam wrote:
    His interviews also showed that he was mentally beaten, saying he lacked the necessary speed to compete.

    I thought his issues were with cocaine not amphetamines?

    :oops: coat got, etc.
  • tarquin_foxglove
    tarquin_foxglove Posts: 554
    Robmanic1 wrote:
    OffTheBackAdam wrote:
    His interviews ... saying he lacked the necessary speed to compete.

    Jeez, he's not on that as well is he?

    Great minds think alike.
  • robmanic1
    robmanic1 Posts: 2,150
    tarquin_foxglove wrote:
    Robmanic1 wrote:
    OffTheBackAdam wrote:
    His interviews ... saying he lacked the necessary speed to compete.

    Jeez, he's not on that as well is he?

    Great minds think alike.

    You're obviously not averse to a cheap shot either :wink:
    Pictures are better than words because some words are big and hard to understand.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/34335188@N07/3336802663/
  • DavidBelcher
    DavidBelcher Posts: 2,684
    teagar wrote:
    Still seen more of Boonen in the two weeks than any other Quick-Step rider.


    He got a cold in week one and has abandoned for "intestinal problems" apparantly.

    Not much to show for the legal wrangle involved in shoe-horning him into the QS line-up. Mind you, I suppose it was done to keep the Belgian public happy as much as anything else; on reflection they should have left him out from the outset and had the team working to help Chavanel bag a stage win or two and a top-20 GC placing instead.

    David
    "It is not enough merely to win; others must lose." - Gore Vidal
  • all show no go
    all show no go Posts: 542
    Was Tom Boonen riding this year? Can't say I noticed.:roll:
    Let's close our eyes and see what happens
  • drenkrom
    drenkrom Posts: 1,062
    Not only did Boonen fail completely at pretty much anything he could've set as an objective, the relation with Pat Lefévère seems to be getting quite tense. A week ago, after Lefévère commented that Boonen clearly didn't have the level, Tom shot back that "Lefévère can contest the sprints himself if he wants". Erm... Tom, you're not contesting them yourself. Then, Pat let out a few other comments that indicate he's not a happy camper.

    Boonen has lost a lot of the glow he had in Belgian media and his manager doesn't seem happy to keep paying him a world champion salary for 16th place on a stage at the Tour. I can't imagine QuickStep got their money's worth for the ad campaign they had planned around Boonen. Could it be possible for Boonen to go elsewhere? Suspense...
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    drenkrom wrote:
    Not only did Boonen fail completely at pretty much anything he could've set as an objective, the relation with Pat Lefévère seems to be getting quite tense. A week ago, after Lefévère commented that Boonen clearly didn't have the level, Tom shot back that "Lefévère can contest the sprints himself if he wants". Erm... Tom, you're not contesting them yourself. Then, Pat let out a few other comments that indicate he's not a happy camper.

    Boonen has lost a lot of the glow he had in Belgian media and his manager doesn't seem happy to keep paying him a world champion salary for 16th place on a stage at the Tour. I can't imagine QuickStep got their money's worth for the ad campaign they had planned around Boonen. Could it be possible for Boonen to go elsewhere? Suspense...


    I think you're being a bit harsh on the guy. He just won the Belgian national champs, which is always a coup in a Belgian team and he's been ill in the tour.

    He looked pretty rough in the interview in Sporza when he said he was abandoning.


    More importantly, what happened to Stijn Devolder? After all, he was supposed to be the team leader!
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • Mettan
    Mettan Posts: 2,103
    bikerZA wrote:
    He's got some serious clubbing to catch up on.

    :D - was thinking that myself.
  • Le Commentateur
    Le Commentateur Posts: 4,099
    Boonen's not confident enough to be a contender in the sprints.

    Devolder is the new Van Petergem, classics winner that doesn't travel well.
    Un uomo solo al commando
  • drenkrom
    drenkrom Posts: 1,062
    teagar wrote:
    He looked pretty rough in the interview in Sporza when he said he was abandoning.


    More importantly, what happened to Stijn Devolder? After all, he was supposed to be the team leader!

    I don't dispute for a second that he was ill. i saw pictures of him on the morning of the withdrawal and he looked simply awful. Still, the tension has definitely risen between him and his boss. It may well cool down away from the pressure of the Tour, but harmony is not a word I'd use to describe QuickStep right now.

    Good point on Devolder, though. I regularly forget he's in the race this year. At least, Van Petegem didn't pretend to be aiming the GC at the Tour. On the other hand, if Devolder hadn't had the ride he did in the 2007 Vuelta, no one would be expecting anything from him GC-wise. Let's just say QuickStep's must not be the liveliest table at dinner.
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    tdf09st15-boonen.jpg
    Contador is the Greatest

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