Tom Boonen has never known a season without a victory in his professional career, and on Tuesday he made sure that will remain the case forevermore.
This is the Belgian's final campaign, and after leading Fernando Gaviria to victory on the opening stage of the Vuelta a San Juan, he continued the perfect start with a win of his own on day two, beating Elia Viviani with a powerful sprint that will do wonders for his confidence.
Since turning professional back in 2002, Boonen has gone on to rack up well over 100 victories – among them nine Monuments, six Tour de France stages, and a rainbow jersey. His final season is a truncated one as he prepares to take his final bow at Paris-Roubaix in April – "the race where I was born as a rider" – and in San Juan he swatted away any pressure that might have crept in had the clock started to count down without reward.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It's important for me to win so early in the season," he said after jubilant celebrations on the finish line.
"Yesterday was already very successful for us. We started out with plan to sprint for Gaviria yesterday and for me today, so I'm happy that the chance I had, I was able to take it straight away."
Boonen spoke of the difference between the manner in which he has started this season compared to the previous one. Set back by the skull fracture he sustained at the 2015 Abu Dhabi Tour, he struggled early on last year and was racing against time to find full fitness for the spring classics, only managing it at the last minute with an agonising second place at Paris-Roubaix.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2j5kOZl
No comments:
Post a Comment