It’s the beginning of the end for Tom Boonen. One of the mostly richly decorated riders in the history of cycling will hang up his wheels after Paris-Roubaix in April, and the road to that famous velodrome starts on Monday, some 11,000 miles away in Argentina.
The Vuelta a San Juan, which has stepped up to provide a replacement-of-sorts for the cancelled Tour de San Luis, will provide the Belgian with seven days of hot-weather racing to lay the foundations for the spring, and maybe even boost the confidence with an early victory.
In choosing to bring the curtain down on his career a the race that means the most to him and that he has won a record-equalling four times, Boonen, who is also a former world champion and three-time winner of the Tour of Flanders, has set the framework for a fairytale ending. These may be the first words in the final chapter, but he insists the emotions are taking a back seat for the time being.
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"Actually it feels the same,” he said in a pre-race press conference at the riders’ hotel on Saturday evening. “I think mentally it’s just the same. I have to try to prepare well for the Classics, like I always do, and be 100 per cent fit and motivated for those races.
"Of course, afterwards it will be different, but I think going into those races there won’t be a big difference.”
Where there certainly is a difference is in Boonen’s form and condition – at least compared to 12 months ago.
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