Boonen farewell thread

rick_chasey
rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
edited May 2017 in Pro race
I will naturalment add to this, but meanwhile, let's kick this off with a choicey little comment from this interview: http://www.velonews.com/2017/04/news/to ... ver_434992
“How will you feel on Monday?” a reporter asks. You know, the Monday after. After Boonen. After a 16-year career and three wins at Flanders and six stages of the Tour de France. After bike racing.

“I’m sure I will have the biggest hangover,”
o really, Tom, how will you feel on Monday? Will you feel happy? Will you feel sad? With four or maybe five Paris-Roubaix victories, with millions of Belgians for whom you are a hero, with a couple Ferraris and that very nice Porsche you arrived in, with the designation of, maybe, the best classics rider in classics riding history, how will you feel?

“I’m always sad when I have a hangover,” he says, dry as the desert. Then he cracks a smile.
_
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Comments

  • dish_dash
    dish_dash Posts: 5,561
    too many photos!!!

    boonen-muuseuw.jpg
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    boonen_world.jpg
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    boonen-nieuwsblad13-920.jpg
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    boonen-flanders13-crash-920.jpg
    boonen-roubaix12-stone-920.jpg
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,157
    boonenmeat.jpg
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
    youngboonen-620.jpg


    Tom%20Boonen.jpg

    ab1aaf1c0e6ca0580fe8da7d8aabc36a.jpg

    boonen_sophie_curac.jpg

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    boonenmeat.jpg

    boonengladiator.jpg

    2011_Boonen_pillow1.jpg

    ba6df385413dddda50c09bb4ecc3aa8d.jpg
    _
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
    But yeah, will do a youtube highlights reel some point next week.

    Suffice to say, I still think his best ever form was not in 2005 or 2012 but in 2006. Never seen anyone win Flanders with such consummate ease before or since.
    _
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,157
    The jersey (which I bought in a shop) that he signed for me at the 2006 Tour of Britain

    HkQUoqO.jpg
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
    Very good!
    _
  • dish_dash
    dish_dash Posts: 5,561
    A reminder that he wasn't just about the Classics either...

    Tour+de+France+Stage+Twenty+FMBdjob9wSsl.jpg

    tour-de-france-stage-12-tom-boonen-quick-step-wins-the-stage-right-picture-id504203809

    REU_170732.jpg
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
    Haha, you've never seen as miserable a yellow jersey holder as Boonen was that year!
    _
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,364
    Interesting Palmares:

    Never won Milan San Remo despite some close calls. Too early to hit form at the expense of the Northern Classics?

    Never rode:
    Amstel Gold
    Fleche Wallone
    Tour of Lombardy
    Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

    I guess that's understandable as they are a bit hilly but you would have thought there was a team role in there. He did a sterling job at this years Scheldprijs for example.
    He even won it twice - was that in a sprint? Was there early aspirations of being a sprinter?
    I wonder if he would like to forget the early part of his career with US Postal.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • dish_dash
    dish_dash Posts: 5,561
    Just listened to the podcast special on him.

    Lefevre says he doesn't like the tour. Thinks it is too big and you long.

    Brian Holm suggested he'll be back at the team after driving cars...
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,744
    Pinno wrote:
    He even won it twice - was that in a sprint? Was there early aspirations of being a sprinter?

    He was a sprinter wasn't he - as well as a classics rider.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,157
    DeVlaeminck wrote:
    Pinno wrote:
    He even won it twice - was that in a sprint? Was there early aspirations of being a sprinter?

    He was a sprinter wasn't he - as well as a classics rider.
    Yeah, a proper sprinter. Won six Tour stages in bunch sprints from 2004-2007 including one in Paris.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,364
    dish_dash wrote:
    Just listened to the podcast special on him.

    Lefevre says he doesn't like the tour. Thinks it is too big and you long.

    Brian Holm suggested he'll be back at the team after driving cars...

    Is that a good idea?

    Lamborghini%20Murcielago%20Tom%20Boonen-2.jpg
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
    So he was a bona fiede sprinter for quite a while - he only really gave up full blown bunch sprinting in 2009 or so. Unti then the vast majority of his wins, big or small, were in sprints.
    _
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,364
    In the post Cipo (at peak) pre Cav period then.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,588
    Have to admit I never realised he rode for USPS. I guess that was in my wilderness years when I stopped following the sport.
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,364
    That period of LA tour domination, post Festina affair. Yep, I was turned off by the whole charade too.

    The first Tour I watched after that era was the Sastre Tour.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • Richmond Racer 2
    Richmond Racer 2 Posts: 4,698
    I'm already getting emosh for tomorrow

    tears are gonna flow. And that's just in SW15
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
    Pinno wrote:
    In the post Cipo (at peak) pre Cav period then.

    He was mainly racing Petacchi, McEwen Hushovd and Freire.

    Good times - no one sprinter really dominated.
    _
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 13,328
    1011071-tom-boonen-bad-1jpg.jpg?modified_at=1491586863&width=960
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • greasedscotsman
    greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
    Going to seem very odd next spring when he's not about. Anyway, photo from yesterday's course recce...

    33096914173_d5e05d05cc_k.jpg
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    Got a nice 55km with about 6km of Cheshire cobbles planned for tomorrow morning. Then to Rapha in time for the Arenburg :)
  • shockedsoshocked
    shockedsoshocked Posts: 4,021
    1979900849_1.jpg

    Will cry big manly Duvel fueled tears if he wins tomorrow.
    "A cyclist has nothing to lose but his chain"

    PTP Runner Up 2015
  • specialgueststar
    specialgueststar Posts: 3,418
    bobmcstuff wrote:
    Got a nice 55km with about 6km of Cheshire cobbles planned for tomorrow morning. Then to Rapha in time for the Arenburg :)

    Swiss hill. Big ring!
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
    ShockedSoShocked wrote:
    1979900849_1.jpg

    Will cry big manly Duvel fueled tears if he wins tomorrow.

    That was when shorts were a proper length.
    _
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,364
    That's the Looy fit. As opposed to the Movistar or Tinkoff fit:

    viewtopic.php?f=40013&t=13039887&start=2240#p20097053
    Pinno wrote:
    cycling-14th-tour-of-qatar-2015-stage-4-valverde-alejandro-ventoso-picture-id532742866

    peter-sagan-hairy-legs-tour-de-san-luis_3527398.jpg?20160704144907

    Van_Looy_Rik2.jpg
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,737
    Kwiakowski is the worst offender.
    _
  • IanLD
    IanLD Posts: 423
    Unmissable tomorrow. One More Tom!
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    SpecialGuestStar wrote:
    bobmcstuff wrote:
    Got a nice 55km with about 6km of Cheshire cobbles planned for tomorrow morning. Then to Rapha in time for the Arenburg :)

    Swiss hill. Big ring!

    The only way I'll be in the big ring on Swiss Hill is if my gears don't work...

    I thought I'd put that in the Roubaix thread, woops.

    Also will have a touch of the hangovers to contend with.
  • yourpaceormine
    yourpaceormine Posts: 1,245
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Kwiakowski is the worst offender.
    Bit harsh. He's only a little fella, and everyone knows that turnups don't work with shorts

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