News shorts: Successful surgery for Boonen
Cancellara unhappy with Tirreno-Adriatico time trial showing
Surgery a success for Boonen
Having crashed out of Paris-Nice Tom Boonen has undergone a successful surgery in Herentals, Belgium, according to a statement by his Etixx-Quick Step team.
"The joint is stable and the surgery went well," doctor Yvan Van Mol said in a statement from the team. "It's too early to state a precise time of recovery, which will depend on the evolution of the healing process. Tom will return home, and as soon as possible start the rehabilitation necessary to improve the range of motion of the left shoulder."
Boonen's crash occurred when he was returning to the peloton having dropped off a rain jacket to the team car and touched wheels with a rider in front of him, causing him to crash and fall on his left-side, incurring the injuries.
The three-time Tour of Flanders and four-time Paris-Roubiax champion will miss the entire classics campaign due to the injury.
Cancellara disappointed by Tirreno-Adriatico time trial
Fabian Cancellara (Trek) was disappointed to lose out to Adriano Malori (Movistar) by one second in the opening time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico but the Swiss rider said that he would scarcely have been much happier with his performance had the result gone the other way.
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“I’m not happy with my performance, I didn’t go as I had hoped,” Cancellara told Tuttobici afterwards. “I didn’t commit any major errors but not everything went perfectly and I’d rather not go into the details.
“I know where I lost that second and I can tell you that even with the win, I wouldn’t have been really satisfied because I didn’t ride as I would have liked. Today was a test of pure power but something didn’t go right.”
Cancellara’s Trek teammate, Bauke Mollema, would doubtless have preferred if Tirreno-Adriatico had begun with a 22km team time trial as originally planned. The Dutchman finished the day in 50th place, 15 seconds down, although he will have been pleased to have limited his losses to Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and picked up 4 seconds on Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo).
“Last week I was really looking forward to the team time trial because that is something I like to do and we have a great team here for that,” Mollema admitted. “But in the end it does not matter so much because the differences in the uphill finishes will be a lot bigger than today.”
Gilbert takes consolation prize after Paris-Nice escape
Philippe Gilbert’s primary aim at Paris-Nice is to build his condition for Milan-San Remo but the BMC rider is also on the look-out for his first victory of the new season.
Gilbert attacked early during Wednesday’s third stage in the company of Florian Vachon (Bretagne-Séché), but while the duo later had Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) for company, they were caught inside the final ten kilometres.
“I was hoping our break would spark a bigger group but nobody came and followed us,” Gilbert told RTBF of his initial attack with Vachon. “With two riders and a three-minute lead, it was impossible to hope that we could stay away so we slowed up a bit. Voeckler joined us afterwards and we gained a bit of ground again, but the roads were ideal for the chasers.”
The stage honours – and possession of the overall lead – ultimately fell to Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge), while Gilbert visited the podium for the consolation prize of the polka dot jersey of king of the mountains.
“It’s not my first polka dot jersey – I’ve worn it at the Tour de Lorraine, Tour de Picardie and even on the Tour de France. I got involved during the day and it’s nice to have it, but it’s going to be very hard to keep it,” Gilbert said.
