All the attention on Quick-Step Floors in the past few weeks has been on Tom Boonen and his final ride at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. If Boonen were to win on Sunday, it would be a fairy-tale ending to his career that would put him into the record books as the most successful Paris-Roubaix rider with five titles overall.
The Hell of the North doesn't do sentimentality, however, and there is every chance that the race could close out Boonen's time at the Classics as disappointingly as it did for Fabian Cancellara last year. Quick-Step Floors have other options alongside Boonen with former winner Niki Terpstra and podium finisher Zdenek Stybar. Either rider could seal the deal for the team on Sunday, but Terpstra says that they are behind their departing leader.
"Of course, we have to race the race, but I think that everybody supports Tom to make history," Terpstra told Cyclingnews.
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Terpstra has been teammates with Boonen since joining the team in 2011. Boonen admitted that he hadn't been too happy about Terpstra joining the team at the time, but in the intervening years the pair have developed a good relationship on and off the bike, and the Dutchman says he'll miss Boonen both on and off the bike.
"For sure, I'm going to miss him, but that's life, and we go on," he said. “I'll miss him in races, but I'll also miss him outside the race. He's always good fun to have in the team, and that's the thing I'm going to miss."
Terpstra won Paris-Roubaix in 2014 by 20 seconds over John Degenkolb, after a late attack following the last sector of cobbles. While the attention has been on Boonen and the high-flying Philippe Gilbert, Terpstra has enjoyed a solid spring campaign with fourth at Gent-Wevelgem and third at the Tour of Flanders. It is this weekend that he has been looking forward to most and he's raring to go.
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