Tom Boonen will ride Milan-San Remo for the last time on Saturday, but he refuses to consider his final race in Italy and the final weeks of his career as a swansong. He is focused on winning rather than looking back at his success in the spring Classics.
Boonen is not interested in a long goodbye like Bradley Wiggins. He will retire after targeting Paris-Roubaix one last time and will then hold a special party with riders and fans.
“Wiggins stopped something like 15 times. It doesn't work that way, eh. Either you stop or you don't stop and you keep racing!” Boonen joked about Wiggins’ drawn-out farewell, revealing that lots of riders in the peloton have already come up to him to say goodbye and wish him all the best.
The stream of farewell messages and nostalgia seem to irritate Boonen, as if he is being invited to his own funeral. Before hanging up his bike and getting on with the rest of his life, the 36-year-old Flandrian wants to enjoy every aspect of his final spring campaign. He knows the need to train and race hard, to recover and stay focused, and that the huge media attention in Belgium will ease after Sunday April 9. He is still hungry but keen to savour every moment, without getting caught up in the emotions of it all.
“It’s strange, when someone comes to say goodbye, you realise that, shit, there are not that many races left anymore. But I’m not thinking about all the last things I’m doing; I’m thinking about what’s coming up,” Boonen explained to journalists at Tirreno-Adriatico before travelling to the Quick-Step Floors team’s traditional base near Bologna for some recovery ahead of Friday’s journey to Milan.
“Yep, Milan-San Remo will be my last race in Italy but I’ll be in Italy a lot after that, hopefully. I’m not aware that I’m doing things for the last time – otherwise I don’t think I’m focusing in the right way.
“The only reason that people talk about Paris-Roubaix now is because it’s my last one. Of course Paris-Roubaix is my favourite, and the races before it are races I really enjoy. But Roubaix is the last one – that’s all. There are not many races left and so we’ll have to try to win some of them. For sure we’ll lose a lot but we’ll be trying to win too.”
Milan-San Remo will be Boonen’s 40th Monument of his 16-year career. He has been close to victory several times – including two places on the podium – but reveals he only had the form and sprinting speed to win it once.
“A lot of people say I ride Milan-San Remo because I have to but I like to ride it. It’s a special race,” Boonen points out.
“It’s difficult to win but every Classic is difficult to win. Milan-San Remo seems more difficult to actually win it because you often finish so close to victory. You’re always there sprinting with 30 or 40 people, sprinting for victory, so you always have the sensation you can win. Whatever happens, there’s always a good rider that wins it.”
“If I look back at all the editions of Milan-San Remo I’ve done, I’ve been on the podium several times, but I feel I only missed out on victory once – I think it was in 2008 or 2009. That’s when I really had the legs to win. Other times I was in the place where I deserved to be. But that’s Milan-San Remo. It’s a seven-hour race and then it’s decided in two seconds.”
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Riding for Gaviria
Boonen accepts his name is now unlikely to be added to the Italian race’s roll of honour. He is happy to ride for Fernando Gaviria on Saturday, knowing the young Colombian sprinter is perfectly suited to the high-speed finale and sprint that so often decides La Classicissima.
However, Boonen wants to play a major role in the race and will be Quick-Step Floors’ road captain as they try to use their incredible strength in depth to out-manoeuvre huge favourite and huge rival Peter Sagan.
“I hope to be in the top 10-15 positions on the top of the Poggio –where everybody wants to be – then see if I can put Fernando in a good position,” Boonen explained.
“For us right now, he’s the main rider for Milan-San Remo. He showed by winning the Tirreno sprint that he’s getting better and better every day. If we look back at last year, too, he’s good. He’s a young guy but he’s got the talent that he doesn’t need a lot of experience in races. He just feels the race really well, so we put all our cards on him.”
Boonen only hopes that Gaviria can avoid crashing, after his debut at Milan-San Remo was wrecked by nerves in the finale and a fatal touch of wheels as he tried to position himself for the sprint in Via Roma.
“He crashed last year but he learnt a lot. You have to take the chances you get. He’s in good shape and we can put him a good position this year, so he’s got to try to take it.
“He’s fast, he’s good, and he’s one of the most talented guys in the team for his age. It’s only right that he gets a chance to win. You can see that it all flows naturally for him. He doesn’t have to force himself into a role he doesn’t like. He has the brains to make a decision on his own, as he did in the sprint when he won the stage. That defines a true champion, I think.”
Beating Peter Sagan
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