Boonen banged up

"A cruel accident" is how Tom Boonen described his crash at the Vattenfall Cyclassics, 19 kilometres before the finish line. The TV cameras lingered a long time on the Quick.Step-Innergetic star as he remained on the ground, nursing his injuries. But he was eventually able to get back on his bike and ride over the finish line.

Everything hurt, he said, but there was another reason he took so long to get up. "Probably a bike or something hit me in the head, because everything was spinning," he told Sportwereld.be. And really everything did hurt: "My left elbow, my right knee, my toes, my thigh, my hands, my shoulders."

But he evidently suffered nothing worse than bumps and bruises, and in fact, on Sunday evening flew home. His plan for the week was to check out the Worlds course in Stuttgart. "That was the plan, yes. Now I don't know."