Boonen: I almost lost my arm due to infection

Tom Boonen was happy to finally make his season debut at the Tour of Oman on Monday after a difficult winter and his recent spell in hospital after an infection in his elbow.

"I was in hospital for a week and that's only two weeks ago, so it's not long ago but my week of training felt good. Of course it (my form) is not like it was before but we'll see. There's still seven weeks to go (until the Tour of Flanders), that's a lot of time but it isn’t too. I did a lot of training before and was really good already, so I hope there's enough to buffer the illness."