Eye of the Tornado | Cyclingnews

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Boonen was quite content to be in green (Image credit: AFP)

"For me it went okay," says the former World Champion, reflecting on a consistent 2007, "I had a very good year last year and I won my races in the beginning, straight on from the start in the Classics, I had my victories in Belgium." But the big one eluded him, as things didn't go to plan in the quest for a third consecutive Ronde van Vlaanderen. "The only thing: in Flanders I had a crash in the beginning of the race and it was hard to get into the race again. So that was I think the most terrible day of the Spring Classics for me. It was still okay; I mean ___ happens in races like that.

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Last year's Tour of Qatar – also the first race of Boonen's 2008 season – proved highly successful for him and his team. Boonen himself netted four of the five road stages and Quick Step took the team time trial, while team-mate Wilfried Cretskens took the overall. The team is not tempted to go all out this year to make it five out of five for Boonen, preferring to save something for what will prove to be a punishing early spring schedule.

"This year we'll try to do a little bit less in Qatar and just take it a little bit more easy in the beginning. We go to Qatar, to California, Paris-Nice, so I go to each side of the world. Then five days after Qatar we go back, then six days later we're in San Francisco. Then the Tuesday before Het Volk – that's only three days before Het Volk – we get back in Belgium so I think it will be a little bit of globe traveling."

Before a pedal has been turned in anger though, it's a little difficult to predict who is going to be on their best form and when, but there will be no prizes for guessing which particular riders will try to be at their best for particular days this April. "It's too soon now to tell who's going to be very good in the beginning, and the good names – everybody knows them – like Hoste, Ballan, I know them all, it's about who's going to be good or trying to be good at the beginning of the classics."

"I think Stijn is the guy we were missing last year. Stijn has to do the job that Peter [Van Petegem] was supposed to do last year. Peter was a good guy and I was really surprised at the way he came into the team. He was very good rider, but he came one year too late. His really top condition was gone. He was still there until the final started, but he wasn't able to do the things he did the years before."

Devolder however, will have no such problems: "I think Stijn is more able to do a good job and we'll try and work together in the final. He's perfect; his own personal ambitions are trying to do good in stage races: Giro [d'Italia], [Tour of] Switzerland, maybe Tour of Spain like he did this year, and then he wants to help me out. I think it will be a good role for him too, because he likes to fight and likes to race hard, and when you put him in a situation like that he's going to win races for sure."

For many years it seemed that the Paris-Roubaix belonged to this team – and its previous incarnations – but just recently, the race has been dominated by rival team CSC with imperious victories from Fabain Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady in the past two years. Boonen puts this down to the unusual way that the race has unfolded: "It's the situation; CSC was very strong with Cancellara and O'Grady. O'Grady was very strong in the final, but it was a strange Roubaix, like I told you. Guys went away very soon in the race, and nobody wanted to race behind them, and then we went fast over the cobbles. We were left with five guys and nobody wanted to race again."

Boonen and Quick Step's domination – and expected domination – of classic races can also work against them as the rest of the peloton looks to them to make the moves and chase the breaks. "That's what makes it hard for me to win races, because we often get into situations where other teams try to isolate me, because they know that if I can stay in the final with three or four guys that we're probably going to control the race and try and make it a sprint or kill them somewhere else, and they try to isolate me.

Despite being only 27 years old, and likely to be one of the dominant riders for a good few years to come, Tom Boonen can already see a generation of younger riders poised to rise up and challenge the established order. One rider in particular has come to his attention: "The German guy – what's his name, from T-Mobile [now Team High Road] – the guy who won Gent-Wevelgem. Burghardt! Burghardt is there, some Italians also."

Not only that, but there seems to be a generation of even younger riders waiting in the wings to take over. "I think there are a lot of riders – also in Belgium – who are not at a good level yet, but trying so hard, and they will for sure be there this year. Maybe not to win the race but they can make it hard for us. There's not really a big big name that already has big results in the bigger races, from the younger guys, but there's some potential in there, and we have to be careful with younger guys because they're really motivated."

Much was made of Boonen's move from his home in Belgium to the millionaires' playground of Monaco a few years ago. Despite the cynicism he has experienced about the low taxes paid by residents, the climate and terrain have made day-to-day training much less complicated: "It's not only the training. It's better to train because you've got some hills and you've got a lot of nice quiet roads if you want to. Monaco by itself is nothing; it's like three k's, so you're out of Monaco in no time. I'm not there a lot in the summer. In the summer the it gets so busy that it's not possible to train there – it's possible, but it's so dangerous."

While maintaining his Belgian roots, little things like owning a very Monaco style Lamborghini Murciélago – as well as having his team bike painted to match – would indicate that he is settling in and enjoying the anonymity that being "just another superstar" can bring: "The months I am there it's always quiet and it's more easy for me to live. I can go to the bakery and get some bread, I can go to the supermarket, nobody talks to me, nobody recognises me. Maybe they recognise me, but they don't bother you.

Despite what one might think, the absence of cobbles, bergs and crosswinds don't adversely affect a rider who is training for races on that terrain. "When I wasn't living in Monaco I was going to training camps and was 50k from Monaco. You always look for the good weather, like we've come to Spain. You don't stay in Belgium to train in the snow, because in Belgium training for the classics, every rider wants to go to the good weather to prepare themselves properly in good health. You don't have to train on the cobbles to ride fast; you have to train good and then ride fast on the cobbles."

"I'd like to, but it's so hard this year that it's almost impossible to have a result. And just to go there to go, it may be nice just for a while, but this year the Worlds is a possibility. It will be hard to go to the Olympics just to take a look and enjoy yourself; then go back home... You do the Tour de France, you have to leave the Monday after the Tour because it's only two weeks after, you do the Olympics and two weeks later you're home, so you're six weeks away from home, and you have to start to prepare for the Worlds. I'll probably do the Tour of Spain, so it's a little bit too much." (laughs)

So, such a punishing schedule for a rider who wants to continue to do his job for a team and pursue realistic and achievable targets would seem to contradict recent reports in the Belgian media that he is considering an attempt on the team pursuit race with three of his Quick Step teammates. As far as the road race is concerned though, just to be there on a course that plainly doesn't suit a rider of his strengths is not on the cards.

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