This time last year, Bob Donaldson was only just able to ride outdoors again after a crash that could have ended his budding career. 

It all happened in a flash. Descending a hill near his home on the outskirts of Manchester, the then 20-year-old was struck by a car driver, who swerved across the road in front of him towards their driveway. It took place "in plain sight," Donaldson tells Cycling Weekly, and before he could reach for his brakes, he was lying on the floor. 

"I managed to crawl to somewhere I could perch," he says. "An hour and a half later, I was taken in an ambulance to the hospital, where I had scans and stuff." 

The scans revealed that he had suffered four transverse process fractures to the vertebrae at the bottom of his spine. "I was lucky not to be more damaged," he says. His bike had split in half, and his front wheel had crumpled under the impact with the car. 

It's a memory that Donaldson will have for the rest of his life. And yet, as he stood on the podium at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, second in the under-23 race just a year on from the crash, that day felt so distant. 

Back when Donaldson was bed-bound, racing across Roubaix's jagged cobblestones was unimaginable. The young Brit spent 10 days off the bike, waiting for his broken back to heal, and went almost two months until he could brave the roads again. The challenge, it appeared, wouldn't be regaining fitness, but rather overcoming the fear of crashing. 

"At any point, there's the peril of what a two-tonne car can do," he says. "It also spreads into racing, and only recently have I lost the little conscience in my head to be a bit safer. Throughout the season last year, I had in my head that I did not want to crash and have a major incident again. At the end of the day, it could have ended my career."

Growing up, it was always the lure of the Classics that drew Donaldson to cycling. He idolised serial Monument winners Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara, and dreamed of riding Paris-Roubaix, more so than the Tour de France. 

When he made his debut in the 'Espoirs' event on Sunday, the 22-year-old was familiar with the folklore. The Hell of the North, and its treacherous cobbles, is regarded as one of the most dangerous races on the calendar. But, as Donaldson knew, "you can't go into Roubaix with any fear". 

"You've got to go in with full confidence, and just no fucks, really. You can't be worrying about what could happen. You've just got to race at the front, and race for yourself," he says. And that's what he did. 

A year after breaking his back, Donaldson shook away the fear and rode Roubaix on the front foot. His team, under-23 British Continental outfit Trinity Racing, positioned him well into the early cobbled sectors, and inside 20km to go, he attacked to start the move that would last to the line. 

"I knew my girlfriend and dad would be at the Carrefour de L'Arbre, so I was motivated to just smash it as much as I could across there," Donaldson says. He then worked with Lidl-Trek's Tim Torn Teutenberg and Lotto Dstny's Robin Orins, the trio entering the velodrome together, where Teutenberg sprinted to victory. 

A few days later, Donaldson posted on Instagram, writing that it was "tough to be first loser". 

"There were a few things that maybe I could have done better," he now reflects. "I think, as a cyclist, if you're ever content with not winning then something's probably going wrong. I can take the positives out of coming second, it was such a strong field, and I have a lot of respect for everyone else in the race. To be so close, it just hurts in a way."

Though he did not win, Donaldson did succeed in making a statement. This year is his last in the under-23 ranks, and without a professional contract for next season, the Brit felt he needed a result to put his name in the shop window. 

"People say that the start of the season is the most important time of the year, because that's when deals are done to prepare for next year," he says. "I missed that big chunk last year, and I had no clue how my form would come out of that and how it would impact my season as a whole. 

"It's the results that do the talking at the end of the day, to help get that contract for next year, which is the ultimate goal. With that [Roubaix second place] in the bank, now I feel like I can race with a bit more freedom and confidence that my legs will do the talking."

The effects of the crash still linger in the back of Donaldson's mind. He's quick on his brakes when he sees a car pull up, he says, and he's still got his broken bike frame, which he keeps in his bedroom. Crucially, though, he doesn't let the fear affect his racing. 

"I want to be a Classics rider and have a successful career doing it," he says. "Not necessarily winning loads of races, but having an enjoyable, successful career, which I can look back on and be happy with." The 22-year-old then pauses for a moment. "Yeah, being happy, I'd say, is the number one thing."

"It just felt like there was a different vibe in the air that morning," says Magnus Bäckstedt. He's talking about 11 April 2004. It's a day the Swede has spoken about countless times since – one that came to define his career. Now, two decades later, he has no trouble recalling it. 

"I remember all of it, to be honest with you," he tells Cycling Weekly, and begins at the top. "Rolling to the start, I could feel that I was on a special day. As soon as we started riding, I didn't touch the pedals for the first 150km. Even getting through the Forest [of Arenberg] and out the other side, it was relatively easy. I just felt like I was really on top of it."

The feeling, it turned out, was not misplaced. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Magnus Bäckstedt's triumph at Paris-Roubaix, a win that became synonymous with his name. That day, he spent almost seven hours in the saddle, racing across rough cobblestones and dirt. A tough slog, many would think. For Bäckstedt, it felt as if he was freewheeling. 

"I felt really good in Flanders. I felt really good in Gent-Wevelgem. I think I got second in Gent-Wevelgem that year, just beaten by Tom Boonen in the sprint. Heading into Roubaix, I just had that special feeling that something was up," he says.

"At around the 200km mark, Fabio Baldato [then Alessio-Bianchi sports director] came and asked me how I was feeling. I said, 'You might have to check because I don't think the mechanics put a chain on the bike'," he laughs. "At that point, everything shifted for me. I was one of the protected riders from the start, but it was definitely all hands on deck to look after me for the final of that race."

The story is now well-known in cycling. Bäckstedt went on to win from a breakaway quartet, making history as Sweden's first Roubaix champion. The press swarmed him inside the velodrome at the end. His instant reaction was short and sweet. "It's fucking unbelievable," he said, shaking his head. 

Bäckstedt's path to the 2004 Paris-Roubaix was, in his words, a "choppy" one. He had suffered a few bouts of illness early in the season, "a couple of little bumps in the road", and despite being a contender, his record at the race was unremarkable. In four previous starts, the Swede had placed 7th, 19th and failed to finish twice.

What he lacked in race experience, though, he made up for in meticulous preparation. "I had been across and done recons probably three, if not four, times that year," he says. "With the amount of recons I had done, I probably added another five, six years of racing and understood physically what I needed to do.

"Ultimately, the better you are physically, the more luck you make for yourself. I think that's part of the difficulty and the charm of that bike race."

The then 29-year-old had also paid close attention to his equipment. Having pleaded with the brand for a while, Bianchi gave him a new, titanium frame for the race. His tyre choice was unique at the time, too. "I managed to convince our tyre manufacturer to allow me to ride on these massive, big tyres that we would laugh at these days. I was the first rider that year to ride on 27mm tyres," Bäckstedt says. 

"There was a lot of discussion beforehand about whether I was going to be able to be allowed to ride them because I might lose too much time on the road," he adds. Since then, the standard tyre width at Roubaix has ballooned out to 32mm, and speeds have only gotten faster. 

Last year, in fact, Mathieu van der Poel won the fastest ever edition, crossing the line after five hours and 28 minutes, with an average speed of 46.841km/h. "The winning time last year was an hour faster than what I won it in," says Bäckstedt. 

Today, it has become a tradition in the Bäckstedt household to huddle together and watch the race every year. "It's always been a holy Sunday for us," says the 49-year-old. But there was a time when he couldn't bare to tune in. 

In the two years leading up to his victory, Bäckstedt rode for a Danish team, Fakta, who weren't on the Paris-Roubaix invite list. "I sat on the sidelines," he says. "For me, it was so hard not being at that bike race that I couldn't even watch it. I went out and trained instead.

"Since then, every single second Sunday in April, there's only been one thing that we do, and that's sitting down and watching that race together."

The tradition sparked a desire in his daughters, Elynor and Zoe, who dreamed of racing across the cobbles, like their father had done. 

"When they were younger, there was a youth Paris-Roubaix, and they were begging to go and ride it," Bäckstedt says. "We went across and did that a number of times, and one year, they compiled a letter to the UCI asking them to put on a women's Paris-Roubaix. 

"They wrote that they needed to put a women's race on because that was going to be the last time they got to ride the cobbles of Roubaix."

In 2021, that request became reality, and two years later, both Bäckstedt daughters lined up in the elite race for the first time, together. They were probably the best prepared debutants in history. Speaking at the time, an 18-year-old Zoe said her father had been giving her tips “my whole life”. She even raced with a pair of his old pedals. 

For the family, this year's edition is special. Not only because it marks 20 years since Magnus's victory, but because, for the second year running, he will be alongside his daughters in the peloton. Elynor is down to race for Lidl-Trek, Zoe for Canyon-Sram, and Magnus will be in the latter's team car, in his role as a sports director. 

"I hope we're all going to be at both the start and the finish together," he says, "sharing that 20-year anniversary."

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took a record-equalling victory at the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, joining an exclusive club of riders who have won the race three times. 

The world champion launched his winning move on the Koppenberg, the twelfth of 17 rain-soaked hellingen climbs, with 45km to go. There, as his competitors unclipped and scaled the 20% slope by foot, the Dutchman sailed clear. 

He then soloed over the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg, on to the line in Oudenaarde. Over a minute later, Luca Mozzato (Arkéa - B&B Hotels) pipped Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) to second in a photo finish. The Australian was then relegated, with Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) rounding out the podium. 

Only seven men in history have won the Tour of Flanders three times, among them Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara and Johan Museeuw. 

Van der Poel's victory came in the absence of his career-long rival, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), who suffered “several fractures” in a crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday and pulled out of the Monument. 

How it happened

One of the biggest races in the calendar, attacks for the victory started from 100km to go. The first meaningful move came courtesy of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who accelerated on the 400m-long Molenberg, agitating the bunch, and pulling away a select group of the race favourites, save for Van der Poel, who bided his time in the group behind. 

When the Dutchman zipped across the gap 10km later, Pedersen attacked again off the front. Van der Poel would not earn his third win easily, it became clear. His Alpecin-Deceuninck team-mate Gianni Vermeersch followed Pedersen to police the move. 

With 55km to go, on the second of three ascents of the Oude Kwaremont, Van der Poel caught and passed the leading duo. Would he go solo? Not just yet. The group reassembled a few kilometres later, and scaled the Paterberg as one.

Ivan García Cortina (Movistar) led onto the Koppenberg, the steepest of the hellingen in the race, but fell victim to a mechanical and stepped off onto the cobbles. 

As the Spaniard tinkered frantically with his bike, Van der Poel flew over his shoulder. One bike length, two bike lengths. The gap to his rivals behind grew on the slippery, double-figure gradients. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) chased, while almost every other rider unclipped and walked up the cobbles. A peculiar sight,  befitting of the sportive held the day before, but telling of the difficulty of the pitch.

For the six-time cyclo-cross world champion, the Koppenberg was light work. His seven-second advantage to Jorgenson stretched out on the descent. Within moments, he was almost two minutes clear, and cruising over the famous finale pairing of the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg. 

With the finish line in sight, Van der Poel slowed to freewheel and soak in the moment. He then lifted his bike above his head, a Belgian-born Dutchman, triumphant in Flanders once again.

"It's one of the hardest races I've ever done," Van der Poel said afterwards. It was also one of his most spectacular victories. 

Results

Tour of Flanders 2024: Antwerp > Oudenaarde (270.8km)

1. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, in 6-05-17
2. Luca Mozzato (Ita) Arkéa - B&B Hotels, +1-02
3. Nils Politt (Ger) UAE Team Emirates
4. Mikkel Bjerg (Den) UAE Team Emirates
5. António Morgado (Por) UAE Team Emirates
6. Magnus Sheffield (USA) Ineos Grenadiers
7. Oliver Naesen (Bel) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
8. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Israel-Premier Tech
9. Alberto Bettiol (Ita) EF Education-EasyPost
10. Toms Skujiņš (Lat) Lidl-Trek, all at same time

Holy Week, or the run-up to the Tour of Flanders, properly begins with Gent-Wevelgem on the Sunday before the big one. Confusingly, it does not start in Ghent, instead being raced between Ypres and Wevelgem. 

In the last decade, Plugstreets have been added to the course, a trio of semi-paved gravel roads. The key climbs are the Kemmelberg and the Baneberg, but the race has a different vibe to its bigger sibling, with less climbing overall.

Last year, Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime) won, showing the dominance of their super-teams. It has morphed from a sprinter’s race to a puncheur’s in recent years, but a bunch finish would not be a surprise.

Both the men's and women's races are WorldTour level. Despite its position as the perfect buildup race to Flanders, the last man to win both it and the Ronde a week later was Tom Boonen, and no woman has ever managed the double (although a women's race has only been around for a decade).

In last year's women's edition, Reusser attacked from 40km to time trial to victory, with not even a wrong turn towards the end derailing her; the Swiss rider is not thought to be defending her title, opening it up for her teammates Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes, along with Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek).

Meanwhile, the men's race saw an attack from even further out, as Laporte and Wout van Aert surged away with 52km to go. There will be no repeat of this, as Van Aert is absent, but Laporte will defend his crown, battling Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and maybe even Milan-San Remo winner Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Gent-Wevelgem 2024 key information

Date: Sunday, 24 March
Location: Ypres-Wevelgem, Belgium
2023 winner: Christophe Laporte (men), Marlen Reusser (women)
TV: Discovery+/Eurosport
Distance: 253.1km (men), 171.2km (women)

Gent-Wevelgem 2024 route

Both the men's and women's routes are largely similar, with the women's just skipping an extra loop towards Kortrijk at the beginning of the group. From Ypres, the race heads towards the North Sea before looping back towards Wevelgem, staying with West Flanders.

There are none of the famous climbs of the Tour of Flanders, with the race instead being decided on its own bergs, the Baneberg and the Kemmelberg, both of which can blow the event apart.

The Kemmelberg ascent from Ossuaire features pitches of nearly 20% on uneven cobbles, making for a nasty sting in the tail as the race nears its finale. From there, the final 20 kilometres of the day are relatively flat on wide, exposed roads.

Gent-Wevelgem 2024 riders to watch

Jasper Philipsen
Alpecin-Deceuninck
*****

If the race finishes in a sprint, it would be hard to look past Philipsen, who is probably the fastest man in cycling right now. His victory at Milan-San Remo earlier in March proved his ability to sprint at the end of a long, hard race, especially with the help of his teammate, world champion Mathieu van der Poel.

Mads Pedersen
Lidl-Trek
*****

Gent-Wevelgem is made for a punchy rider with a fast finish like Pedersen, as he proved by winning it in 2020. The Dane won six races at the beginning of February, but missed out on wins narrowly at Paris-Nice. He then failed to make the podium at Milan-San Remo, but the fact he was in that leading group of 12 proves his form.

Olav Kooij
Visma-Lease a Bike
****

It would be an oversight to not include a Visma-Lease a Bike rider in this list, considering the team's overwhelming strength in the Classics, and Kooij is the most likely to win in a sprint should it come down to a bunch finish. The support of last year's winner, Christophe Laporte, could be vital.

Lotte Kopecky
SD Worx-Protime
*****

The world champion is almost unbeatable in the Classics. While she might have come second at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, she bounced back with victories at Strade Bianche and Danilith Nokere Koerse. She will want to hit the ground running ahead of Flanders with victory in Wevelgem.

Elisa Balsamo
Lidl-Trek
*****

The Italian comes into Gent-Wevelgem in form, as the victor of the Trofeo Alfredo Binda last weekend. She has also won this race before, and it is perfectly suited to her skill set - Balsamo is one of the fastest finishers, but can also get over climbs, as she proved at Binda.

Pfeiffer Georgi
dsm-firmenich PostNL
****

dsm will likely be riding for their star sprinter, Charlotte Kool, with Georgi as a key part of the leadout train. However, if the race breaks up, Georgi herself would be a top tip for the group of favourites; the Briton has the skill to make it there. The winner of the Classic Brugge-De Panne last year, it might be time for another breakout result.

Gent-Wevelgem 2024 start lists

Men's

Visma-Lease a Bike
LAPORTE Christophe
BENOOT Tiesj
HAGENES Per Strand
KOOIJ Olav
VAN DER SANDE Tosh
VAN DIJKE Mick
VAN DIJKE Tim

Alpecin-Deceuninck
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
PHILIPSEN Jasper
KIELICH Timo
KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren
DILLIER Silvan
VERMEERSCH Gianni

Intermarché-Wanty
GIRMAY Biniam
MIHKELS Madis
PAGE Hugo
REX Laurenz
PETIT Adrien
TEUNISSEN Mike
ZIMMERMANN Georg

Soudal Quick-Step
MERLIER Tim
LAMPAERT Yves
GELDERS Gil
ČERNÝ Josef
VAN LERBERGHE Bert
VANGHELUWE Warre
WARLOP Jordi

Arkéa-B&B Hotels
DÉMARE Arnaud
DEKKER David
LE BERRE Mathis
MOZZATO Luca
MCLAY Daniel
SCOTSON Miles
ALBANESE Vincenzo

Astana Qazaqstan
CAVENDISH Mark
BOL Cees
FEDOROV Yevgeniy
GAZZOLI Michele
GRUZDEV Dmitriy
MØRKØV Michael
SYRITSA Gleb

Bahrain-Victorious
MOHORIČ Matej
GOVEKAR Matevž
GRADEK Kamil
MIHOLJEVIĆ Fran
PASQUALON Andrea
RAJOVIĆ Dušan
WRIGHT Fred

Bora-Hansgrohe
MEEUS Jordi
DENZ Nico
HALLER Marco
MACIEJUK Filip
MULLEN Ryan
KOCH Jonas
VAN POPPEL Danny

Cofidis
ALLEGAERT Piet
ANIOŁKOWSKI Stanisław
DE GENDT Aimé
FRETIN Milan
NOPPE Christophe
RENARD Alexis
ROBEET Ludovic

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
NAESEN Oliver
BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
DE BONDT Dries
DE PESTEL Sander
GAUTHERAT Pierre
LABROSSE Jordan
BENNETT Sam

dsm-firmenich PostNL
DEGENKOLB John
EDDY Patrick
EDMONDSON Alex
EEKHOFF Nils
LEIJNSE Enzo
MÄRKL Niklas

EF Education-EasyPost
BISSEGGER Stefan
DOULL Owain
ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack
RUTSCH Jonas
SWEENY Harry
VALGREN Michael

Groupama-FDJ
KÜNG Stefan
ASKEY Lewis
BYSTRØM Sven Erik
LE GAC Olivier
LIENHARD Fabian
PITHIE Laurence

Ineos Grenadiers
NARVÁEZ Jhonatan
ROWE Luke
SHEFFIELD Magnus
SWIFT Ben
SWIFT Connor
TARLING Joshua

Jayco-AlUla
MATTHEWS Michael
DURBRIDGE Luke
MEZGEC Luka
O'BRIEN Kelland
REINDERS Elmar
GROENEWEGEN Dylan
WALSCHEID Max

Lidl-Trek
PEDERSEN Mads
DECLERCQ Tim
GIBBONS Ryan
HOOLE Daan
KIRSCH Alex
MILAN Jonathan
STUYVEN Jasper

Movistar
GAVIRIA Fernando
CANAL Carlos
JACOBS Johan
NORSGAARD Mathias
MORO Manlio
RANGEL Vinicius
ROMEO Iván

UAE Team Emirates
MORGADO António
OLIVEIRA Ivo
BJERG Mikkel
HODEG Álvaro José
MOLANO Juan Sebastián
VINK Michael
POLITT Nils

Lotto Dsnty
DE LIE Arnaud
BEULLENS Cedric
EENKHOORN Pascal
GRIGNARD Sébastien
SLOCK Liam
VAN MOER Brent
DE BUYST Jasper

Israel-Premier Tech
ACKERMANN Pascal
BOIVIN Guillaume
SHEEHAN Riley
STEWART Jake
VAN ASBROECK Tom
VERNON Ethan
HOFSTETTER Hugo

Q36.5 Pro Cycling
FRISON Frederik
CHRISTEN Fabio
DEVRIENDT Tom
LUDVIGSSON Tobias
STEIMLE Jannik
TOWNSEND Rory
ZUKOWSKY Nickolas

Tudor Pro Cycling
TRENTIN Matteo
KOLZE CHANGIZI Sebastian
HEMING Mika
KELEMEN Petr
MAYRHOFER Marius
PLUIMERS Rick
ZIJLAARD Maikel

Uno-X Mobility
KRISTOFF Alexander
ABRAHAMSEN Jonas
FREDHEIM Stian
GUDMESTAD Tord
RESELL Erik Nordsæter
TILLER Rasmus
WÆRENSKJOLD Søren

Flanders-Baloise
CLAEYS Arno
COLMAN Alex
DE VYLDER Lindsay
DE WILDE Gilles
DEWEIRDT Siebe
VAN HEMELEN Vincent
VANHOOF Ward
VANDEVELDE Yentl

TotalEnergies
VAN GESTEL Dries
BONNET Thomas
DUJARDIN Sandy
GACHIGNARD Thomas
JEANNIÈRE Emilien
SOUPE Geoffrey
TURGIS Anthony

Women's

SD Worx-Protime
KOPECKY Lotte
WIEBES Lorena
CECCHINI Elena
GERRITSE Femke
GUARISCHI Barbara
BREDEWOLD Mischa

AG Insurance-Soudal
BOOGAARD Maaike
BORGSTRÖM Julia
(LE COURT) PIENAAR Kimberley
PLUIMERS Ilse
RIJNBEEK Maud

Canyon-SRAM
DYGERT Chloe
BÄCKSTEDT Zoe
CROMWELL Tiffany
SKALNIAK-SÓJKA Agnieszka
TOWERS Alice
VAN DER DUIN Maike

Ceratizit-WNT
ARZUFFI Alice Maria
FIDANZA Arianna
BERTON Nina
LACH Marta
SCHWEINBERGER Kathrin
TEUTENBERG Lea Lin

FDJ-SUEZ
BROWN Grace
BUIJSMAN Nina
DEMAY Coralie
LE NET Marie
VERHULST-WILD Gladys
WIEL Jade

Fenix-Deceuninck
CANT Sanne
COUZENS Millie
DE WILDE Julie
KUIJPERS Evy
PERKINS Flora
PIETERSE Puck

Human Powered Health
CORDON-RAGOT Audrey
EDWARDS Ruth
KASPER Romy
RAGUSA Katia
WILLIAMS Lily
ZANARDI Silvia

Lidl-Trek
BALSAMO Elisa
BRAND Lucinda
DEIGNAN Elizabeth
LONGO BORGHINI Elisa
VAN ANROOIJ Shirin
VAN DIJK Ellen

Liv AlUla Jayco
BAKER Georgia
CAMPBELL Teniel
KOREVAAR Jeanne
PATE Amber
PATERNOSTER Letizia
ROSEMAN-GANNON Ruby

Movistar
BIANNIC Aude
NORSGAARD Emma
MACKAIJ Floortje
RUIZ PÉREZ Laura
RUIZ PÉREZ Lucía
SIERRA Arlenis

Roland
COLES-LYSTER Maggie
CHRISTOFOROU Antri
COLLINELLI Sofia
DRONOVA-BALABOLINA Tamara
SWINKELS Sylvie
VETTORELLO Giorgia

dsm-firmenich PostNL
BARBIERI Rachele
GEORGI Pfeiffer
KOCH Franziska
KOOL Charlotte
PLOUFFE Maeve
SMITH Abi

UAE Team ADQ
PERSICO Silvia
CONSONNI Chiara
BUJAK Eugenia
GASPARRINI Eleonora Camilla
NEUMANOVA Tereza
SWINKELS Karlijn

Uno-X Mobility
DIDERIKSEN Amalie
BEEKHUIS Teuntje
BOILARD Simone
CONFALONIERI Maria Giulia
KOERNER Rebecca
OLAUSSON Wilma

Visma-Lease a Bike
VAN EMPEL Fem
ACHTEREEKTE Carlijn
NOOIJEN Lieke
VIGIE Margaux
RIEDMANN Linda
VON BERSWORDT Sophie

Cofidis
BERTEAU Victoire
CASTRIQUE Alana
FORTIN Valentine
MÉNAGE Lise
TALBOT Josie
VAN HAAFTEN Kirstie

Arkéa-B&B Hotels
DRUMMOND Michaela
FAHLIN Emilia
FOUQUENET Amandine
LE DEUNFF Marie-Morgane
MORICHON Anais
TRÉGOUËT Maurène

Chevalmeire
BEX Nathalie
BRAAM Danique
ERIKSEN Malin
GRÖNDAHL Antonia
NILSSON Hanna
WATTS Emily

Coop-Repsol
GRANGIER India
GREENWOOD Monica
JØRGENSEN Tiril
MOHR Mari Hole
TACEY April
VAN ROOIJEN Eline

EF Education-Cannondale
ARMITAGE Megan
BORGHESI Letizia
KESSLER Nina
LABECKI Coryn
RÜEGG Noemi
STANNARD Elizabeth

Lifeplus-Wahoo
BURLOVÁ Kristýna
KING Eluned
LEECH Madelaine
JAMIESON Ella
VAN DER WOLF Babette
RYSZ Kaja

Lotto Dsnty
DE JONG Thalita
ARENS Maureen
DE CLERCQ Katrijn
DOCX Mieke
HENDRICKX Julie
VAN WERSCH Anna

Proximus-Cyclis
AERNOUTS Amber
BOSKAMP Lente
DE GROOT Marieke
MEERTENS Lone
LÓPEZ Marga
VAN GOETHEM Femke

VolkerWessels
DEMEY Valerie
DIJKSTRA Anneke
MEERT Marieke
MOLENAAR Laura
SCHOENS Quinty
VANPACHTENBEKE Margot

This article is part of Cycling Weekly's 'the ride that changed me' series. Our writers hear from a range of professional and ex-professional cyclists about that one day on the bike that changed the trajectory of their career for good. 

Elisa Longo Borghini is one of a select few riders that can count a huge, Paris-Roubaix cobblestone trophy amongst her collection. Only some of the very best Classics riders - Eddy Merckx, Lizzie Deignan, Peter Sagan and Tom Boonen to name a few - can do likewise. 

As the second-ever winner of the women’s edition of the iconic cobbled classic, you would be forgiven for assuming that Longo Borghini would have highlighted her Roubaix win as that ride that changed her. The reality is that the big turning point in her career came far earlier than that fabled day in Belgium. 

The Italian Classics star tells Cycling Weekly that one of the biggest turning points in her career came on a rain swept afternoon in Varese, northern Italy. 

“So the ride that changed me was [Trofeo Alfreda] Binda 2013 which sounds like ages ago,” she says. “Actually, it is a while ago now and I won that race.”

“It was a very cold, rainy and grey day,” she adds. “It was my first World Cup - because at the time there were still World Cups - victory in all my career and the second victory in my life as an elite rider. 

“I was just delighted to win the race, I was really not expecting it because I was coming from 10 days where I was doing only easy rides because I had a problem with my left calf muscle. I just went into the race with no pressure and no thoughts [of winning].”

Riding for the Hitec Products UCK team at the time, Longo Borghini came up against several riders that she would eventually call teammates later on in her career at Trek-Segafredo (now Lidl-Trek). 

She recalls that when it came to crunch time and she decided to launch her race winning move, only one of those future teammates could follow. 

“I remember attacking on a descent because it was really wet,” she says. “I was like, 'okay, I'll try to make my attack here' and then I went away and only Spratty [Amanda Spratt] could follow me. 

"We stayed together for a little bit and then I dropped her on the last climb. When I crossed the line, I was really freezing but I was not feeling anything at the time because it was so much to enjoy.”

Nowadays when crossing the line first, Longo Borghini, like most other riders, would no doubt be seen sipping a recovery drink as she makes her way to the podium. But not back then. 

After such a foul day on the bike in bleak conditions, there was only one thing for it. Descend on the nearest restaurant to enjoy good food and drink and celebrate a momentous victory with friends and family. 

“After that I remember that we went to a restaurant and we ate two pizzas. I mean, I ate two pizzas,” she says with a laugh. “It was because I was so hungry and my parents were so happy and they were like 'okay, we just eat whatever we want' and I remember eating two pizzas and still being hungry because of the ride.

“So yeah, the reason why I chose this race is because I was really young at the time and I had no knowledge of where I could stand in the elite peloton. 

"There I realised that I could actually be quite alright and that my dreams could become true. And here I am now talking about it.”

Join us for the next instalment of 'the ride that changed me' in a fortnight's time.

The innovative Belgian shifting company Classified has teamed up with Belgian Cycling Factory to create a new gravel racing outfit, the Classified x Ridley Factory Team.

The brand is also using Belgium's Velofollies international bike show to launch three new wheelsets, which are compatible with the Classified Powershift drivetrain system - the R36, R50, and G42.

The Powershift system doesn't use a front derailleur, instead employing an internal two speed integrated rear hub that acts much like a two-ring front crankset does. It has been used in WorldTour road racing and gravel events alike.

The new professional gravel team, which will use the Powershift system, is said to be the first pro "factory team" to be on the gravel scene. Classified went into the world of gravel last year, sponsoring Dutchman Piotr Havik, but has now added four more riders to an actual team, along with Ridley: British riders Toby Perry, Annabel Fisher, and Freya Rawlins, and the Belgian Daan Grosemans.

Perry won the UCI Gravel World Series race in Millau, France, last year, while Annabel Fisher won the final classification of the Gravel Earth Series last year. The UCI Gravel World Championships in Leuven, Belgium, is one of the big aims of the team, seeing as it is on home soil.

"Some big sponsors wanted to contribute their share to the Classified Factory Team, so we can now strengthen our one-man team and move up a gear with Classified-Ridley," Classified ambassador, investor, and former multiple-Monument winner Tom Boonen said in the press release. "We are at the beginning of a very nice story. We strongly believe in the gravel scene and will continue to support it in the long term."

Classified's other investors include former pro cyclists Tom Boonen, Andre Greipel, Marcel Kittel, Philippe Gilbert and Anna van der Breggen, so it's not short of star power.

The gravel team will use Classified's new gravel wheels, the G42, for their 2024 season. While being aerodynamic, the wheels can accommodate tyres from 30mm to 55mm and have a claimed weight of just 1,350 grams. However, it is worth noting that this weight is given "including front hub, excluding Powershift rear hub" - so the actual weight of the wheelset will come in proportionally higher. The marketing from the brand says: "From winning gravel races to mastering multi-day bikepacking trips, this wheel can do it all and has proven it in 2023 testing."

Meanwhile, Classified has also launched the R36 and R50 wheelset, a climbing and aerodynamic pair respectively. 

The R36 weighs just 1,315 grams - again, not including the Powershift rear hub - and is designed for climbing but could also mix it in the Classics, according to Classified, while the the R50 is the "perfect allrounder". It comes in at 1,415 grams (excluding Powershift hub) and has been optimised to be fastest with 30mm tyres. 

According to the Belgian brand, "Classified Cycling's R50 wheelset outperformed market-leading wheelsets from major brands", but this is currently unverifiable, obviously.

All three sets of wheels hit the market post Velofollies, and are priced at €1,500 each. 

After a nearly six-year break from professional cycling, the competitive cycling itch is starting to prickle again for Classics legend Tom Boonen.

The 42-year-old former bike racer turned race car driver says he’s considering pinning on a race number again, according to Sporza.

"I'm even considering looking for some competition on the bike again. I'm still a bit hesitant, but it's starting to itch again," says Boonen.

A return to the WorldTour peloton is unlikely, however.

“I think of something like the [mountain bike race] Roc du Maroc or some gravel races,” he says.

He’d even consider contesting the gravel world championships. Imagine seeing the four-time Paris-Roubaix and three-time Flanders winner, the “Bom van Balen” square off against Mathieu van der Poel. 

"Who knows?” Boonen teases. “In any case, it is becoming very big, has a lot of potential. I get it, because it goes back to the essence of cycling: nature, freedom…”

Boonen seems to have had a change of heart since we last spoke to him, at the Sea Otter Classic in April 2022 where he was promoting his business, the Classified Powershift system. 

At that time, he ranked family and car racing far above cycling. In fact, he hadn’t even touched a bike for months, stating “I love it very much but, in a way, cycling has passed me by. The best of my cycling days are over. I never feel as good as I once felt.”

Boonen has always loved cars, and he made his car racing debut at the VW Fun Cup, driving a classic Volkswagen Beetle, just three months after hanging up his race bike. He made his full-season racing debut that next year in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series and has since gone on to race in the Belcar series, the Supercar Challenge and Carrera Cup. 

Yet despite trading two wheels for four, he remained an an avid cycling fan, often seen on the sidelines of WorldTour races.

“Modern cycling is such a joy to watch. Tour winners who come to ride in the Classics, all-rounders who will race anywhere and are good everywhere…I really like it, and I wish I was racing now,” he said at the time.

And perhaps in 2023, we’ll see him turn that longing into reality. 

Former world champion Tom Boonen has said that Remco Evenepoel should avoid Belgium “as much as possible” over the next year, revealing that he himself struggled with fame during his career. 

Speaking to Cycling Weekly at Rouleur Live, the 42-year-old said: “My advice [to Evenepoel] would be what he’s doing right now, get away from Belgium as much as possible.

“Take your family with you, train in Spain, relax a little bit, so there’s always a barrier in between the crazy Flemish people and yourself.” 

Asked how he found being in the public eye, Boonen said: “I didn’t like it. Nobody likes it, I think.

“Why would you want to be famous? You lose all your privileges of not being famous. As a bike rider, I wanted to race bikes and be a good bike rider. I never asked to be famous, so I never liked it.

“I loved riding my bike and I loved being at races and having people enjoy those races, but I never liked the part of being famous.” 

Boonen became world champion in 2005, when he out-sprinted Alejandro Valverde to the title in Madrid, Spain. That same season, the Belgian claimed his first victories at Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, races that he would go on to win four and three times respectively. 

Due to their shared prowess in one-day races, some have drawn parallels between the two Belgians. Boonen, however, doesn’t see it.

“I don’t think you can compare him to me,” the former Quick-Step rider said. “He’s a completely different rider. I know in Belgium it’s because he became world champion at a young age and he’s getting a lot of attention.”

The key difference, he continued, is his compatriot’s strength across three-week races. 

“I think he has the ability to win the Tour de France, and I’m pretty sure of that,” Boonen said. “I’m not saying he’s going to, but he’s going in the direction of the Grand Tours. The way he raced this year was unbelievable.”

In September, Evenepoel won his first Grand Tour title at the Vuelta a España, taking two stage wins and prevailing by over two minutes in the GC. He then travelled to the World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, where he earned himself the rainbow jersey in the road race, attacking solo with 26km to go. 

The 22-year-old has since gotten married and relocated to Alicante, Spain. 

On the five-year anniversary of his last professional bike race — Paris-Roubaix on April 9, 2017— I find myself sitting at a large wooden table across from Classics legend Tom Boonen. I don’t think either of us were aware of this momentous coincidence at the time. The 2022 edition of Paris-Roubaix wouldn’t be happening till the following week after all. 

Tom was attending the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California, to promote his Classified Powershift company. Even amid a sea of 74,000 people, the tall Belgian stood out. 

We said hi, made small-talk and exchanged digits to meet up for a proper chat later on at the weekend. When that time came, we wandered the sandy and wind-swept venue in search of a modicum of quiet. 

Along the way, we conversed easily. He in Flemish, me in Dutch. We chatted about recent bike races we’d both watched and shared our mutual fondness for handmade steel bikes and old motorcycles. He stopped to show me photos of his blonde twin 'princesses’ on his phone. I showed him the 1982 Honda Twinstar I converted into a cafe racer during the pandemic. 

Not once did we get interrupted by a fan. 

I’m sure that if this meeting had taken place in Belgium, things would have certainly gone differently. But Tom seemed to prefer it this way. Throughout the four expo days, he gave his time generously to everyone. Even to a group of amateur mountain bikers who’d been helping themselves liberally to the free beer on offer at the various booths, and belligerently shouted at Tom to come take their group photo. They had no idea who he was but Tom, de Bom van Balen, patiently performed the request. Ok, ready? smiiile! 

No diva behavior here. 

At 41, the Tom Boonen sitting in front of me with his stubble beard and eyes hidden behind dark aviators still looks fit as a fiddle and devilishly handsome. His second career as a race car driver suits him. Leaning on the table, Tom, as well as the smiley tattoo on his forearm, smiles back at me. 

“Do you know New Beat?” he asks. “It was the beginning of all the electronic dance music in Belgium. New Beat had a smiley as its symbol and every 16-year-old put that smiley on their jean jacket.”  It was also the symbol of XTC pills, but I decide to not veer into the drug talk.

Other ink on Tom’s body depicts his old Porsche Turbo, a heart shaped from two small hands to represent his twin daughters, and ‘Choose Life’, the iconic words of the 1996 film Trainspotting. The film opens with a monologue by its protagonist, heroin-addict Mark Renton, played by Ewan McGregor. “Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television,” Renton begins. The monologue finishes with the words, “Choose your future. Choose life. But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else.”

For Tom, this tattoo is his carpe diem. 

“For me, it means that every morning when I wake up I can choose to be happy or choose to not be happy. So I choose life. Very simple. Very dry,” he says. “There’s no reason to walk around in a foul mood.”

From where I’m sitting I see ink references to cars, family, life but not one that’s cycling related. Where does cycling stand in his day-to-day life? Despite talks of a comeback in 2019, has that flame waned?  

“My children come before anything, of course, but the bike? Well… cars rank much higher than the bike at the moment,” the four-time Paris-Roubaix winner says.

In fact, he hadn’t biked for some four months prior to coming to the Sea Otter Classic in April, where he was asked to partake in a publicity ride. 

“I do still love the sport. And the bike itself especially. I had a very nice steel bike made when I quit, and I love it very much but, in a way, cycling has passed me by. The best of my cycling days are over. I never feel as good as I once felt,” he shares.

“You just feel that decline. Aging feels harshest on the bike. I no longer have the ambition to spend 20-25 hours on my bike every week. I know a lot of ex-pros do ride that much. And I get it but for me, at moment, no…Maybe it'll come back.”

The former world champion still likes to push his body, however. He runs three times a week, and was proud to break the 45-minute mark for a 10K. He also does high intensity circuit training to help him in the race car. 

“The circuit training is a super good influence on my body, and the physical preparedness determines your mental freshness. [Car racing] takes so much mental readiness that you just have to be good physically,” Tom explains. “The more you struggle physically, the more it will take a mental toll.”

Tom Boonen, the professional race car driver

Tom has always loved cars, and his foray into motorsports was planned. He made his debut at the VW Fun Cup at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in July 2017, just three months after ending his cycling career. He made his full-season racing debut that next year in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series for Braxx Racing in the Elite 2 class. He has since gone on to race in the Belcar series, the Supercar Challenge and Carrera Cup. The dream? Le Mans. 

“You know, when I raced my first race about five years ago now, I was genuinely scared. I hadn't been scared for years. I had palpitations, I…I  really felt alive again. The start of a race is pure adrenaline,” he says, while flexing his arms in front of him in a short burst of energy. 

“I'm now at a level where this is finally starting to get a little more comfortable. You get to know yourself anew. You race against yourself. You don't race against the rest. I am the weak link in the car. That car can do what it can, and I am the one making the mistakes and I like that [challenge] so very much.”

We’ve now broached the topic of car racing, and Tom’s face has completely lit up. The youthful exuberance, the joy, the energy radiating off him…it belies his age and he looks like a kid in love. Here’s a four-time winner of Paris-Roubaix, three-time Tour of Flanders victor, a former rainbow jersey wearer with six stages of the Tour de France to his name and a green jersey still hangs in the hallway of his home. He’s arguably the greatest one-day rider of his generation, yet somehow that seems like a past lifetime now. This man in front of me looks like he’s living his absolute best life. I don’t think I’ve seen him happier and more fulfilled.

When I point this out to him, his smile gets even bigger. “I drove on Friday before flying out, so I’m happy,” he shrugs.

Perhaps this love for his second sporting career comes from the fact that it’s still new to him, and doesn’t make him feel his age the way cycling does. 

“The nice thing about motorsport, as I have noticed in myself, is that you can get better at it for a long time. It's really technical and I'm only now just getting a little good at it,” Tom explains. “It’s about learning to get the most out of the car, to respect the tires, optimizing the settings, and it’s really a feel sport. People always think of the extreme speeds and danger of it, but it’s actually more like balancing on a tightrope. Even the smallest input can make all the difference. The smarter and calmer you become, the better you get. And as I get older I only get calmer.”

Modern cycling

Tom is still a keen cycling fan and can frequently be found on the sidelines of big races. He was there, for example, to witness Tadej Pogačar’s incredible ascents on the Oude Kwaremont in the last edition of Flanders. “That second time up…I’ve never seen anything like it,” Tom says. 

“Modern cycling is such a joy to watch. Tour winners who come to ride in the Classics, all-rounders who will race anywhere and are good everywhere. I used to think that the hyper-specialization [in the sport] was only going to get worse, but that's not the case at all. Those guys are showing us that we were doing it all wrong. I really like it, and I wish I was racing now.”

Could he keep up? Say he had the fitness from that fruitful Classic season of 2012, could he give Mathieu van der Poel or Wout van Aert some competition?

“Don’t know. I want to say yes. I should say yes. Maybe?” he questions. “I think a lot has changed. I would have loved to do it all in the past, but it was always met with a 'no, that's not possible. We need to be even more specialized.’ I think we ended up racing too many races where we couldn't really do anything because we were tired, and we were there against our will. We should have just raced a lot less and target races with full enthusiasm. We didn't know any better then. It was just another time.”

Tom points out that nowadays, riders train more but race less. As a result they arrive fresher and better prepared, both physically and mentally. Equipment and technology also play a big part in elevating the sport to the high level it is today. 

“Bikes, helmets, apparel — everything is getting faster and faster. Everyone is expertly prepared when they get to the start, and the whole peloton is doing it so the whole level of the sport goes up. And then you’ve got these super talents,” Tom says.

Superhuman talents or just young, ambitious and well-equipped? 

“I really do think that 99.99 per cent of these riders deliberately do not take doping,” Tom says without shying away from my blatant innuendo. “I think there was a very big switch in doping between 2000 and 2010. Yes, it took a long time before everyone was on board and before it was really out of the peloton, but I don't believe that there is still massive false play or that teams are still consciously doing shady things. Definitely not.”

Tom reveals to me that he’s a big MvdP fan, and instead of fearing that his impressive Classics tally may be belittled, he looks forward to welcoming the multitalented Dutch superstar to his ranks. 

“I’ll be there cheering,” he says. “I love watching him do his thing. I think Wout is a great rider also but with him everything is more measured, balanced and planned. More robotic. With Mathieu, you can just see how much fun he's having. I like that. And he also has other things in his life outside of racing. That should serve as an example for the youth: Do what you have to do to be good at what you love to do, but don’t make it your all. There should be room to breathe as well.”

So will Van der Poel meet or even best his Classics tally? 

“If you enter a race, you can win,” Tom states plainly. “Mathieu has yet to start winning Paris-Roubaix, but he has now won Tour of Flanders twice. He could win it five or six times, absolutely, but it is also possible that he will never win again. I do think that Mathieu is in a different situation than I was. He is the only leader in a very good team, while with us we always started with two or three candidates. It’s not always about a rider’s ability or capability so much as it has to do with team structure, I think. Could he do it? Absolutely. Will he? We'll see. Anything can happen; it's still cycling.”

Tom Boonen has said his plans for a comeback were “concrete,” but have since been abandoned due to coronavirus.

The Belgian Classics superstar had intended to return to racing at the highest level, having retired mid-way through the 2017 season.

Boonen, now 39, previously said he has gained more experience since leaving the peloton and wanted to put that knowledge to good use. 

But the former Quick-Step rider’s plans were upended by the coronavirus pandemic, and Boonen says he has barely touched the bike. 

When asked by Vive le Vélo if his plans were serious, Boonen said: “They said to me 'if you are going to train anyway, why not make a comeback right away?' Suddenly it was booming and there were concrete plans.

“I was triggered and wondered how difficult or easy it would be to get back to that level, because I am turning 40 this year. I thought maybe I want to do that. But then it was mid-March and suddenly there was corona and then everything came to a standstill.”

Boonen retired as a legend of the sport, with 121 wins on his palmares including four editions of Paris-Roubaix, a World Championship title, three Tour of Flanders trophies and six stages of the Tour de France. 

His battles with rival Fabian Cancellara on the cobbles of France and Belgium are some of the most exciting editions of the Monuments.

Since retirement, Boonen has worked as a technological adviser to Quick-Step’s Belgian rivals Lotto-Soudal and also established himself as a racing driver.

Earlier this year, Boonen discussed his comeback ambitions on Belgian radio.  

He said: “I find it very strange, but I actually have a lot more experience than when I was racing myself.

“I will be 40 at the end of this year. If I ever have to do it once, it’s going to have to be now.”

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But it seems a Boonen comeback is another event suspended by the coronavirus pandemic.  

Four-time winner of Paris-Roubaix, Tom Boonen, has not ruled out a possible return to racing at the highest level when he was asked about it on Belgian radio, Sporza reports.

Boonen, 39, was on Studio Brussel promoting his new TV series, Tom Cycle, shown on Belgian TV. But when presenter Michèle Cuvelier moved onto his retirement he was rather open about a possible come back and on his life since retiring.

The former world champion said: "I still watch a lot of competitions, because I am an analyst. I still cycle occasionally to try to stay fit. However, that is not as good as before."

Retiring after the 2017 Paris-Roubaix, Boonen says he has gained more experience since retiring: "I find it very strange, but I actually have a lot more experience than when I was racing myself.

"Then I shielded myself a lot more. And you were in the middle of it. You are one of the key figures and you actually get very little. You are also protected. You are in hotels or you are training at home. Everything that happens happens rightaround you."

Boonen continues: "Then you go to such a start of a race, you are in that race and you can decide it yourself.

"Now, if I watch TV or go to a race, everything happens without you having a handle on it. Making that switch is still difficult for me, I think. I live much harder with the race now and go much harder than I used to."

Over his amazing career, Boonen won 121 races including four-editions of Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships road race, along with six stages of the Tour de France and three Tour of Flanders titles.

In his final appearance for Quick-Step Floors, now Deceuninck-Quick-Step, Boonen finished 13th in Roubaix. A strong display by any normal rider, but from a four-time winner it will have been disappointing end.

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The comeback conversation ended after a listener called in and asked is Boonen would try and win Paris-Roubaix "one more time for us?"

"Can I think about it for a very long time and very hard?" he replied.

"I sometimes wonder myself the same question," he admitted.

"Last week I said, how easy or how hard would it be? I sometimes ask myself that question. Certainly because of the return of [tennis player] Kim (Clijsters). It is an option."

Kim Clijsters returned to professional tennis after a period away from the sport with great success and is making a second comeback this year, eight years after retiring.

If Boonen were to return he would face young riders like Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) as well as long established stars like Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), among others.

He said: "I will be 40 at the end of this year. If I ever have to do it once, it's going to have to be now."

Four-time Paris-Roubaix winner Tom Boonen has narrowly escaped injury after being involved in a racing car crash.

The Belgian was racing at the 2019 Belcar Endurance Championship in the Netherlands, when he collided with German racer Kenneth Heyer at more than 200km/h. Boonen says the other car "landed 10cm from my head" and claims he was "very lucky" to have come away from the incident unscathed.

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"I passed Kenneth and he came in too early and hit me," Boonen told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. "The rest is one long crash that could have ended very badly. I don't think he saw me. The car literally landed on my car 10 centimetres from my head. I was really lucky."

Boonen's crash comes the day after he won his first ever race on the same Dutch track, posting a picture of himself celebrating on his Instagram. In the caption, the 39-year-old says that he was looking forward to the race where he nearly suffered a serious injury.

Boonen acquired his racing licence in June 2018 having retired from the professional peloton the previous year, his final race being the 2017 edition of Paris-Roubaix.

Speaking at the time his ambitions to become a racing car driver became public, Boonen said: "For seven years now I regularly participate in ‘Track Days’, an opportunity to ride freely on the track, but as a professional cyclist I had never allowed to take part in a competition. Now my career is over, I have seized my chance."

Tom Boonen was one of the most successful riders of his generation, winning many major titles with Quick-Step.

He became road world champion in 2005 in Madrid, beating Alejandro Valverde, and took the green jersey at the 2007 Tour de France, as well as six stages during his career.

As well as his four Paris-Roubaix titles, Boonen won the Tour of Flanders three times as well as taking multiple victories in Gent-Wevelgem, E3 Harelbeke and Schelderprijs.

Former world champion and classics star Tom Boonen has named Geraint Thomas as his favourite to win the Tour de France thanks to the Welshman's strong Ineos team and willpower.

Thomas, after winning in 2018, leads Ineos in the 2019 edition with Colombian Egan Bernal. Boonen, watching his progression since they were rivals in the classics, tips the 33 year old for the title.

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"I have Geraint Thomas on my list," Boonen told Cycling Weekly.

"He didn't have a flawless preparation, but it doesn't mean a lot. He has the experience, he has the will. He has the peace of mind. He's already won one. That changes a lot with the team he has and the capability he has. He's a big favourite."

Thomas was due to lead the race with Chris Froome until the four-time winner crashed while doing a recon for the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial.

"Everyone is talking about an open Tour de France, but the only thing that changes is that Chris isn't there. The machine that was controlling everything is exactly the same, so I don't know where they get it," Boonen continued.

"I am also hoping for it, but don't think it'll happen. The team is still super strong and Geraint can also profit from that and he won't suffer as much as the other guys in the last week because he has that team."

In 2010, Boonen began to take note of Thomas during the classics season, with Sky making a big push in the spring races with him, Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe. Thomas rode well in the Monuments but with his track background faired better in the stage races once he made the switch.

"I'm impressed. Everyone knew he had a lot of capabilities, of course, having capabilities and winning a Grand Tour is a little bit different, but I don't think anyone was really surprised that he could do it," Boonen continued.

"Like we said about Bradley Wiggins, if you focus as a Grand Tour specialist, especially with the bodies they have, they are not pure climbers, but super strong guys with a good time trial, you can also win in the classics, or try to win.

"Geraint did it the other way around than what Bradley did. Bradley tried every thing a bit in the beginning of his career and went really good in stage racing, and then tried to win Paris-Roubaix at the end of his career. Geraint went first in the classics and evaluated it though the years, doing some small stage races and some big ones after."

This year, the Tour route leans more on the mountains than time trials, with the final three stages before Paris being serious mountain days.

"This year is a little bit different, it's really hard in the last four to five days and that suits Thomas better," Boonen said.

"He has shown a lot of stamina and a lot of ability to recover well for the last week. He has a super good team as well."

Boonen, retired since 2017, works at the Tour for Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws and broadcaster VTM.

"Life is pretty good, I found my second passion in motor sports, I started racing again one month after car racing. It really helps me stay on top of my game, it needs focus and it needs training," Boonen said, still looking fit enough to win a Monument.

"I think it's very important after a career of 20 years in any sport that you have objectives in life. Now my year's still in parts in preparing for racing, so it's quite the same, just different material. The big objective is to go to race Le Mans, I'm trying to do that in two years."

Deceuninck - Quick-Step contains a bit of magic that the other top teams lack, says retired Classics star Tom Boonen.

The Belgian super team swept the races Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne – dubbed 'the opening weekend' in cycling.

Quick-Step usually is a beacon in the Classics through mid-April, and signalled early in 2019 with wins by Zdenek Stybar and Luxembourger Bob Jungels on Saturday and Sunday (March 2 and 3).

The team further secured their peerless ability on the cobbles, as Florian Sénéchal won his first pro race at Le Samyn.

>>> Five things we learned from the 2019 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne

"In that team, there has been a tradition for years," Boonen told VTM.

"The riders that come in are usually just very proud to be allowed to ride.

"Especially when the Flemish spring Classics are at the door. It starts to tickle at the camp in December, and from then on it is talked about and lived together. I assume that other teams do that too, but in one way or another, there's magic in the team."

The team over the years dominated the cobbles from Northern France through Flanders with Niki Terpstra, Boonen, Philippe Gilbert, Nick Nuyens, Stijn Devolder, Johan Museeuw and Andrea Tafi.

Terpstra won the Tour of Flanders in 2018 and Paris-Roubaix in 2014. Boonen himself won three times in Flanders and four times in Paris-Roubaix.

Their success does bring criticism if they do not win. Other teams compete and pull off the wins, but Deceuninck - Quick-Step carries the weight of a cycling-hungry nation.

Both Stybar and Jungels have been allowed to spread their wings after Niki Terpstra left for Direct Energie this winter and Boonen's retirement in 2017.

Jungels is making the cobbled Classics a priority this spring, after previously focusing only on the Ardennes Classics and Grand Tours.

Yves Lampaert, like Stybar, will have more opportunities now that Terpstra freed some space.

>>> Bob Jungels says Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne solo attack was ‘mission impossible’

"From the moment someone leaves, there are opportunities for the others," Boonen continued.

"Those who were satisfied riding in the shadows and occasionally racing for a trophy, suddenly see an opportunity to take a step forward. And they have the capacity, otherwise you do not ride in such a team.

"Men like Stybar are suddenly unblocked. It was a very different Stybar that I saw on Saturday, he was very confident."

"On Sunday, it was just one big power show, when you saw Bob Jungels fly away. He has a very strong body, he can climb in Liège but also the Flemish slopes.

"He has experienced and the love for the Flemish races. I think we will see him again very often in the future. In the Tour of Flanders? I believe in him, I already had him as a favourite in every race."

Retired Classics hardman Tom Boonen could be dropped from his advisor role at Lotto-Soudal.

Boonen, who retired after the 2017 Paris-Roubaix, switched from Quick-Step Floors to Belgian rivals Lotto-Soudal as a “technological advisor” for 2018.

But Lotto’s new CEO John Lelangue said Boonen may not be kept on next season.

Lelangue told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad: “At the moment Tom is not part of my plan.

“He is someone who can definitely add value to the team, only he must have a full function and at the moment it’s not clear to me how exactly we can fill it.”

>>> Quick-Step Floors announce new title sponsor

The incoming CEO, who replaces Paul De Geyter after just one year, this week organised a non-rider team day at the Soudal headquarters in northern Belgium.

Team staff, doctors, cooks and mechanics all attended, but Boonen did not take part in the event.

Boonen rode for Quick-Step Floors for 15 seasons before retiring from the sport last season at the age of 37.

Lotto-Soudal and Quick-Step have maintained a long-standing rivalry as the two Belgian WorldTour outfits.

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But despite the competition, Boonen moved joined Lotto this season as an advisor and shareholder.

The four-time Paris-Roubaix and triple Tour of Flanders winner joined as part of Lotto’s Captains of Cycling programme, which allows the public to invest in the team and get a range of benefits.

He was also given an additional role as advisor.

In his final racing season, Boonen finished 13th in Paris-Roubaix and took top-10s in E3 Harelbeke and Ghent-Wevelgem.

During his career, he won six Tour de France stages, the World Championships in 2005, and the Tour of Qatar overall four times.

Tom Boonen has applauded rising Belgian star Remco Evenepoel for his world titles in Innsbruck this week, but says the junior cyclist "needs to learn to ride tactically at WorldTour level."

The 18-year-old won the time trial by over a minute and soloed away from his rivals with 20 kilometres remaining for the road world title two days later.

Next year, he leaps to the professional ranks with Quick-Step Floors, the team that helped Boonen win so many classics.

"Now he has to learn how to race tactically," Boonen told Sporza.

"His biggest handicap is that he has never really had to race, he is just riding a high pace. Racing is also tactics, riding in a tricky way so that your rivals have to go a bit deeper than you do."

>>>Junior world champion Remco Evenepoel eyes future Grand Tour wins

Evenepoel won all four of the stage races he competed in this year.

His titles came via solo moves.

In the European championships, he rode clear in the third of 11 laps and won with 10 minutes in hand.

With the two world titles, he now counts 22 wins for 2018.

In 2019, he will make the rare leap from junior to professional ranks with top team Quick-Step Floors.

His plan is to develop into a Grand Tour cyclist.

"Now he just rides everyone to death. He may be a bit further ahead than other boys in his development," Boonen added.

"The capabilities of Evenepoel are enormous, but you also have to put it in the right context. With the pros, he will ride against men who are already fully developed, but at Quick-Step they will handle this well."

Boonen won the World Championship title and stages in the Tour de France.

In a career that ran until 2017, he collected three Tour of Flanders and four Paris-Roubaix titles.

After Boonen and with Gilbert nearing the end of his career, Belgium is looking for its future stars.

"Remco is an exceptional talent, and people who normally never talk about racing are now asking me about him, and then you know something is starting to happen," added Boonen.

"He actually passed his first test this year, because he had to make an important choice about his future [deciding to turn professional at a young age], and with all those decisions, he's still winning. Then you know he's strong headed."

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) is complaining about the lack of cooperation from other riders after his rivals attack, but he has been warned by cycling great Tom Boonen that it's better to keep quiet.

The three-time world champion placed sixth in the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. To win the race, Quick-Step Floors's Niki Terpstra launched a solo move off the heels of Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) at 26 kilometres out.

>>> Peter Sagan: ‘If the other riders don’t wake up, it’s going to be like this’

Sagan looked to rivals Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac) and Tiesj Benoot (Lotto-Soudal), but said he saw blank stares.

"The other teams didn't respect the situation and collaborate," Sagan explained. "It's not just me that they need to beat."

Boonen won Flanders three times and Paris-Roubaix, which Sagan will try to win on Sunday, four times. He shook his head on Belgian television last night when hearing Sagan's cooperation comments.

"A lack of cooperation? He is always in the wheel," Boonen said during Extra Time Koers on Belgian TV channel Sporza.

"I think Sagan really should not talk about a lack of cooperation. He is the one who always starts to sit on.

"He's like the cat in the tree, sitting there and then all at once, coming forward and waving his paw [for the others to work]. Then you have to keep your mouth shut."

Instead of working in unison, the riders took different turns attacking behind a solo Terpstra. Sagan launched on the Paterberg, the final climb, and tried to chase solo but he decided against it when it failed to make an impact.

Bora-Hansgrohe explained that they were trying to keep the race together to get Sagan to the Oudenaarde finish with a small group. From there, they felt confident he could sprint for his second win after the 2016 title.

"I like him and this does not detract from his qualities," Boonen continued. "He is a very good rider, but you should not say such a thing if you try to ride in the wheels yourself.

"He also always tries to benefit from the work of other teams. There is nothing wrong with that, but then you do not have to complain afterwards: 'They won't work with me.'"

Sagan must now look ahead to the last cobbled classic of the season, Paris-Roubaix this Sunday in northern France. Despite Quick-Step Floors's dominance and Niki Terpstra's wins in E3 Harelbeke and Flanders, odds makers list Sagan as Sunday's favourite.

Looking ahead, Sagan said, "It's hard to race in my position in the group. Also, if the other riders don't wake up, it's going to be like this. Quick-Step will go and win all the races."

The rivalry between Quick-Step Floors and Lotto-Soudal may have dominated Belgian cycling for years, but that hasn't stopped Tom Boonen, who spent 15 years racing for the former, moving across to the latter for the 2018 season.

Boonen won't be riding of course, having retired as a rider after Paris-Roubaix last year, but has instead moved across to Lotto-Soudal as a shareholder and advisor to the team and its riders.

The 37-year-old joins up with the team as part of its Captains of Cycling programme, which allows any member of the public to sign up to give money to the team, investing between €50 and €5,000 to get a range of benefits from access to exclusive behind the scenes content to invitations to the VIP village at the Tour of Flanders.

>>> 'Everyone started smashing 10 bells out of each other': Abu Dhabi crosswinds prove perfect prep for Classics

However Boonen's seven wins at Flanders and Paris-Roubaix has earned him some special treatment, joinining the team as a "Captain of Cycling" shareholder, but also as a "technological advisor".

Given Boonen's long association with American bike manufacturer Specialized this role on a team which rides Ridley bikes might come as something as a surprise.

But Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad explains the connection, with Boonen's father André being an employee of Ridley, and Ridley also being owned by the Kumpen family, with Boonen driving alongside racing driver Anthony Kumpen in his recent forays into motor racing.

>>> Five things to look out for at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne

"My role for the Lotto Soudal team will be an advising role," Boonen explained. I certainly won’t be looking over the shoulders of everybody.

"But on the areas where I can share my experience, I will gladly do so. Of course I know a lot of staff members and riders, so I won’t need to adapt much to the team."

Tom Boonen says that cycling is "already in the distant past" despite only being eight months into his retirement from the sport.

The 37-year-old Belgian – a world champion, three-time Tour of Flanders and four-time Paris-Roubaix – pulled on the brakes for good after trying for another Roubaix title on April 9.

"We talked about it already in the first few months after my farewell," Boonen told Sporza television. "It seemed as though it was a previous life. It's amazing how quickly you put all that behind you. It's already a distant past, cycling."

Boonen suffered several setbacks in his final years racing with Quick-Step, including a skull fracture, but brought it all together for the 2017 classics season in the spring.

>>> Tom Boonen: ‘I couldn’t just quit after the skull fracture’

Immediately after rolling to the team's bus parked outside the Roubaix velodrome, he shook everyone's hands. If he looked upset, it was because team-mate Zdenek Stybar missed a chance to win the race against Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), not because he had reached the end of his final chapter in cycling.

"I was afraid that I would have too much time after my farewell and that I would be bored. But cycling was a very good sport, but it is not the only thing in the world," Boonen added.

"You can look at it in two ways: it may be a loss, but it offers opportunities to do other things, I have taken those opportunities."

"It all seems like an eternity ago, when I talk about this spring, I have to pinch myself to realise that it was this year."

Watch: "Boonen always had class"

Even his long-time team manager at Quick-Step, Patrick Lefevere, admits that new riders have quickly filled the gaps and taken the attention that Boonen once held.

Boonen has been spending more time with his twins and competing in endurance car races on the nearby Zolder circuit. He said he left with only few regrets. One was when team-mate Philippe Gilbert raced clear of their small group, and to the eventual solo win, with 55.5 kilometres remaining in the Tour of Flanders.

"That is one of the few moments that I regret," Boonen continued.

"I drove to the foot of the Kwaremont to thin out the group. It was not Phil's intention to ride away, Démare, Vanmarcke and Trentin were sitting in front of me, Phil had a gap, but it was not up to me to close that. That gap was getting bigger.

"But I regretted that I did not just join in. Then maybe we could have worked together, but I gave Phil a chance when he started his solo, since Trentin and I were still with the pursuers."

Boonen said he hit his top form this spring in Flanders, that in Roubaix a week later he soon realised it was not his day. The race ended a 16-year professional career for one of Belgium's greats.

"I went over the finish line and rode to the bus, then it hit me: it was over, I had no tears in my eyes."

Having retired earlier this year, the former world champ and all round cycling legend Tom Boonen hasn't been idle for long as he received his race driving license last week according to Nieuwsblad.

Tommeke's thirst for competitive racing clearly hasn't subsided over these past months and racing was always going to be on his mind.

"For seven years now I regularly participate in 'Track Days', an opportunity to ride freely on the track," said Boonen. "But as a professional cyclist I had never allowed to take part in a competition. Now my career is over, I seized my chance. "

The former Paris-Roubaix star will take to the track for the 25 Hours VW Fun Cup, which sees 130 VW Beetles race for 25 hours with a team of drivers for each car.

In a homage to Boonen's 114 UCI wins, the car will adorn that magical number and Boonen's teammates will hope to add to it with at least a top 10.

"Our preparation is the best in years," said teammate Bert Longin. "With this team we would be able to finish in the top ten."

The race will take place between July 6 to 9.

A "one of a kind" Tom Boonen rolled to a stop in Roubaix's velodrome on Sunday in northern France, closing what is perhaps the greatest chapter in the book of Classics cycling.

In the sun-soaked velodrome, one and a half laps of smooth French cement at the end of cycling's roughest one-day race Paris-Roubaix, his career came full circle. In 2002, the 21-year-old fresh-faced Belgian blasted through the mud and left behind US Postal team leader George Hincapie to signal his arrival with third place.

Now, as fit as ever, the 36-year-old Belgian of team Quick-Step Floors is waving goodbye. Along with many other prizes, he leaves with a world champion title, three Tour of Flanders wins and four cobble trophies from Paris-Roubaix.

Uniquely, Boonen sits tied for the record number of wins in both cobbled Monuments. He matched Belgian Roger De Vlaeminck in Paris-Roubaix and five others in the Tour of Flanders. It all came with a charm and friendliness, through even the tough moments, rarely seen among cycling's superstars.

"He never gave up, he had a fantastic early career, but he had some tough moments," says one of his great rivals Fabian Cancellara.

"He was always there. He crashed hard and had some tough moments. Many people forget that he won early and went through it all. People forget what he went through, and for me, that is more impressive."

Cancellara also won three Flanders titles, but won Paris-Roubaix 'only' three times. No other rider was as successful in both of cycling's toughest and most famed Cobbled Classics, not even Belgian cycling great Eddy Merckx.

Cancellara raced against Boonen from the junior ranks until he retired in 2016. One would win Flanders one year, one would win it the next, developing into this generation's biggest rivalry.

>>> Paris-Roubaix: Latest news, report and more

Italian Filippo Pozzato (Wilier-Selle Italia) grew from the Mapei development team with Cancellara and teamed with Boonen early on in team Quick-Step. Thanks to Boonen's support, Pozzato achieved his biggest win.

"I always remember the time that we came into San Remo and he helped me win the race," Pozzato explains.

He sat on his blue Wilier bike ahead of the Three Days of De Panne's second stage, his hair just as wavy and thick as when he won the 2006 Milan-San Remo.

"That photo of me winning Milan-San Remo with him with his arms in the air behind me in the group. Then 15 days later in Flanders, I pulled around 40 kilometres for him in the final and he went on to win. That's a special memory for me."

Boonen won plenty, but only ever managed a third and second place in the Italian monument.

The cyclists from the early 1980s are fading away as new cyclists like Jonathan Dibben, class of 1994, come through. Bernhard Eisel (Dimension Data) rode in the Mapei development team as well, and butted heads with Boonen.

"It's just a sign that soon we'll all be gone," Eisel says with a grin.

"Tom dedicated everything to cycling. He knew when had to be on top of his game. Being there in the major races, but at the same time, he always remembered that it's just a bike race. That makes him special, always good for a laugh and never too serious about the whole thing. He's professional, but we always could have a good laugh."

Eisel remembers seeing Boonen around at the early junior races. He kept crossing paths with him in the Classics and in the Tour de France sprints. He placed fifth in the 2006 Paris-Roubaix when Boonen was already a Classics great with three Monuments in his palmarès.

'This is a guy to follow'

Boonen took after his father André, who raced as a professional in the 1970s. Success came early racing near home in Mol, in Belgium's north.

He considered two teams when making the next step in the amateur ranks: the Eddy Merckx team or the Kortrijkse Groeningespurters. All the best were with Merckx's team and some with Herman Frison's team, he thought, so why not race with the team from Kortrijk?

Former professional and 1998 Paris-Roubaix victor Dirk Demol, from Kortrijk, had already made trip north to Mol's Balen suburb to visit Boonen.

"When I was there, I saw this tall guy and polite guy, and I loved the way he pedalled," Demol says. "Immediately, I said, 'This is a guy to follow.'"

Boonen looked into the Kortrijkse team, which he considered to be well-structured, and decided on it. Besides he wanted to race against the best and not with them in the Merckx and Frison teams.

"I eventually accept the job to be a sports director with US Postal in 2000, but I arranged for him to come to our training camps," continues Demol. "He was doing five to six hours every day and just getting better. A normal rider would be dead."

Demol pulled Boonen aside. "Listen Tom," he said, "I'll make sure you're on as a stagiaire and have a contract."

"We had him on as a stagiaire and one year later, he had a contract," says Demol. "He raced one year more with the Kortrijk team. He already had chances to sign with other teams, but he waited."

Boonen rode with US Postal in 2000 as a stagiaire and debuted in the professional ranks in 2002. Similar to Peter Sagan, who came along 10 years later, it was as if Belgium launched a missile from Flanders directly at the heart of cycling.

He blasted through the mud in an early 2002 Paris-Roubaix escape and once joined by Johan Museeuw and US Postal team-mate George Hincapie, he pushed ahead. When his team captain crashed and fell in a ditch, 21-year-old Boonen charged ahead solo in pursuit of Museeuw. Caked in mud, he arrived third in the velodrome, and the new Lion of Flanders was born.

"I thought, 'he has some class'," explains Roger Hammond, who would place third in the velodrome two years later. "To be the domestique in the US Postal team for Hincapie and then to ride him off his wheel was pretty impressive. You knew he was going to be special, but just how special you didn't know immediately."

Demol was twitchy the rest of that season. Team manager Johan Bruyneel was stalling on offering a 2003 contract and Patrick Lefevere was calling.

"We are going to lose him," Demol said. They did. Demol remained upset for years to come.

"Everyone celebrates Tom in Mol, but that's my home town!" former cyclist and Quick-Step sports director Wilfried Peeters says with a laugh one morning ahead of Ghent-Wevelgem.

"I knew his father very well. As a junior, Tom would ride behind the motor bike with me on it. We trained together, as well, but then I was professional. I remember thinking, 'This is a guy for the future.' But I didn't know that he'd be as strong as he is now."

"He's one of a kind and was made for the cobbles," says Sky sports director and 2001 Paris-Roubaix winner Servais Knaven.

"The first time I really saw him was in the 2002 Paris-Roubaix. We all remember that day and in our team afterwards, we started speaking about him. The year after he joined us in Quick-Step, and he's still there now, it shows how loyal he is.

"The first time I spoke with him was at the end of 2002, at the first team meeting. He was young but he'd always say what I thought. He was a funny character. From day one, he was really part of the team. He was going to be our sprinter. The first year of the Classics weren't too easy for him, but then he started winning big races. He won every one except Omloop Het Nieuwsblad."

The King of Belgium

The Boonen motor began to rev a couple of years into his contract. He began what would be a four-year winning streak in E3 Harelbeke. He won the Flanders/Roubaix double in 2005, which he would repeat in 2012.

He won two stages in his debut Tour de France in 2004. Team boss Patrick Lefevere nodded in confirmation because he believed Boonen would be a sprinter. He won stages in the 2005 Tour and held the green jersey until crashes forced him to quit. He won the green points jersey in 2007 and claimed six stages over the years as he slowly became more of a Classics man.

"Tom Boonen was always good, [others] came along, they were scintillating for a year and then would disappear, but every year he was good," Hammond says. "The only times he wasn't a rival was when he was laying on the road with something broken, other than that, he's always been good. It shows his class.

"I shared rooms with him often," adds Knaven. "I am around 10 years older than him and have more experience. I remember when we rode the Tour together and we shared a room. He won one or two stages. Also had some bad moments, when he crashed in the green jersey. It was up and down, but we always had a good time together."

The good times came with the bad. In 2007 to 2009, he tested positive for cocaine three times. Quick-Step suspended him from racing twice and Boonen admitted he was struggling with a problem.

The crashes took their toll, too. In recent years, he seemed to fall more often and at bad times.

In 2013, a week before Flanders, he crashed in Ghent-Wevelgem and banged his right knee and hip. In Flanders, a fall shortly into the race resulted in a fractured rib and put an end to his Classics season.

A dislocated shoulder from a fall in Paris-Nice ruled him out of the 2015 Classics. He returned hot and won a handful of races only to fall and fracture his skull in the last race of 2015, the Abu Dhabi Tour. He suffered to reach full speed in the 2016 Cobbled Classics, coming good for the final one, when he narrowly lost the Paris-Roubaix sprint to Australian Mathew Hayman.

Boonen erased any doubts that he should have retired after the skull fracture when he stormed through the late summer, winning RideLondon and the Brussels Cycling Classic, and placed third behind Peter Sagan in the Doha World Championships.

"I had the honour of commentating on his first victory as a professional rider which was the 2003 Tour of Belgium and my first Tour of Flanders on the motorbike was in 2005, which was his first win," Belgium's Sporza television commentator, Renaat Schotte says.

"In the fun moments and also in the bad moments, he has charisma. Like how he reacted to Mat Hayman when he lost Paris-Roubaix last year – that was so classy. Of course, he doesn't like to lose but the way he is to the outer-world shows the true gentleman he is.

"He is really sensitive how everything people think. He is a human being that cares a lot about other people. He does not only stand out as a champion, but as a human being."

"My first year in Cofidis [2006], I was a neo-pro back then in what was called the ProTour level and he was the world champion," explains American Tyler Farrar (Dimension Data). "I was a nobody and all the big riders kind of treated me like a nobody, and then at some small race in France and Tom Boonen was there, and he came up and just started talking to me in the middle of the stage. He was just being a nice guy, but I was thinking, 'Why is Tom Boonen talking to me!?'

"I always try to remember that. It made a huge impact on me. He's been a class act his whole career. You look at his resume, it's insane and yet he's a pretty normal guy, he's still friendly and treats everyone in the peloton with respect."

"He has a lot of respect for all the riders whether you're his prime competitor or a guy on a smaller team, he'll treat you the same," says Sky's Luke Rowe.

"He's just inspirational, he's the king of Belgium. In that breakaway with him in Flanders, on his wheel, going up the climbs, it's a wall of 'Tommeke'. It's crazy the support and the respect people have for him."

'It's like a funeral'

As Knaven said, Boonen remained loyal to team Quick-Step. Amazingly, he only changed teams once, from US Postal in 2003. He remained with Quick-Step for 15 years.

In comparison, Fabian Cancellara rode for five teams. And Filippo Pozzato changed teams almost every year.

"It was a piece of cake to keep him, we never really discussed it," team Quick-Step Manager Patrick Lefevere says. "We just sat down once a year and without many words we came to an agreement."

Lefevere had a gem. Boonen won, remained loyal and charmed everyone from fellow riders to press.

"He has a special charisma, he's charming, but on the bike, he's a fighter. I almost never saw him in a bad mood. When he loses he can recover quicker than I can!

"I think [that's what team sponsors like] because at the end of the story the customers are the people who decide if you keep somebody or not."

"He stayed himself," Peeters adds. "He remained like he was in the beginning of his career. He is a man of the people."

Peeters helped some riders to their bikes outside the team bus. Boonen walked to his to begin one of his last races. It is difficult for Peeters – who calculated that he was in the team car for 80 per cent of Boonen's wins – and the rest of the team.

"It is like someone of your family is dying," Quick-Step Sports director Rik Van Slycke says of April 10, the day after Paris-Roubaix.

"It's that hard. Of course we all live for the team day and night, and Tom has been one of the fixed points. He was always there in the Classics and always prepared to win and when he goes away… it's sadness."

Quick-Step has many other winners, which makes the team so effective in races. It can rely on Philippe Gilbert, Niki Terpstra, Zdenek Stybar and Yves Lampaert in the Classics. It has Julian Alaphilippe and Dan Martin for the Ardennes Classics. And other riders like Fernando Gaviria, Bob Jungels and Gianluca Brambilla for all-year-round.

"[Fans were crazy for him] already from day one. They first started following him immediately because Johan Museeuw had just retired," Knaven adds.

"People will cry when he retires in Paris-Roubaix, I am 100 per cent sure of that. For sure, though, they will find a new guy to support. And, for sure, those fans will forever support their Quick-Step team."

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) says that his role model and idol when he was growing up and starting life as a professional cyclist was Belgian Tom Boonen, who will retire on Sunday after Paris-Roubaix.

Sagan remains in awe of Quick-Step Floors' "cool" 36-year-old star, who will try to win a fifth cobbled trophy in the Roubaix velodrome.

"My oldest memory of Paris-Roubaix goes back to 2005, the year that Tom Boonen won for the first time and also became world champion in Madrid,” Sagan told Het Nieuwsblad. “I sat in front of TV at home shouting for Tom's victory. He was my idol.

"When I arrived, I did not know how to ride cobbled classics. Tom Boonen was my example, my reference point. I watched him and regularly asked general questions about cycling. He is cool."

>>> Paris-Roubaix 2017: Latest news and race info

In 2008, the Slovakian placed second in junior Paris-Roubaix behind Andy Fenn – Boonen won the professional race later that day – and took the mountain bike junior world title. He turned professional with Italian team Liquigas in 2010. He quickly made his mark and crossed paths with Boonen.

"The first time I met him? That is one of the most beautiful and important moments with Tom, but that night itself was different. I was at Liquigas neo-pro," Sagan said.

"Young and eager as I was, I made him a dumb move in full preparation for the sprint of the opening stage of the Tour of California. He was angry. Man, I was aware of it. That night we slept in Sacramento in the same hotel. After dinner, I got the courage to walk over to my idol. I said, 'I'm really sorry.' He replied, 'Don't worry, s**t happens in a race.' Typical Tom."

Sagan learned to be humble and friendly from Boonen. "He is a great personality, and always says 'hello' to everyone. I try to do the same, a 'hello' costs nothing."

Boonen narrowly lost the sprint to Australian Mathew Hayman (Orica-Scott) in the 2016 Paris-Roubaix. This Sunday, Sagan and Boonen start as the top two favourites. Sagan wants his first cobble trophy, but if he cannot take it, he would like to see Boonen end his career on top.

>>> Tom Boonen ‘riding as if wearing blinkers’ to stay focused on final ride at Paris-Roubaix

"In the first place, I'm not riding against him. I ride my own race," Sagan added.

"If I cannot win, I will be very happy if he did do so. He deserves this. It would be a great culmination of his career."

Unless you're an opposing team member, or the mum of an opposing team member, who would really want to deny Tom Boonen the ultimate romance of taking a record-breaking fifth Paris-Roubaix win in his final race as a professional?

The 36-year-old will roll out of the start at Compiègne at the start of Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, hoping to go one better than he did last year when he finished second to Mathew Hayman (Orica), and take that record fifth victory in his final ever race.

Boonen will be supported by a team so strong in depth with Classics riders, that the odds suggest at least one of them will make it into any crucial splits that occur in the race.

Moreover, Quick-Step have got another previous winner within their ranks. Niki Terpstra, who went solo to victory in 2014, will likely be the other option should Boonen fail.

Zdenek Stybar is another key option for the Belgian team, with the Czech showing his ability on the cobbles with a second place finish in 2015.

The experienced Iljo Keisse and Matteo Trentin will also be key support riders for Boonen, with Dwars door Vlaanderen winner Yves Lampaert also getting a ride.

Quick-Step Floors team for Paris-Roubaix 2017: Tom Boonen, Tim Declercq, Iljo Keisse, Yves Lampaert, Zdenek Stybar, Niki Terpstra, Matteo Trentin and Julien Vermote.

Tom Boonen (Quick-Step Floors) admits that he is pushing through the madness leading to Sunday's Paris-Roubaix as if wearing blinkers. He will retire after the French Monument, which he already won four times.

>>> Eight things to look out for at Paris-Roubaix

The Belgian raced for the last time on home soil on Wednesday in the Scheldeprijs, which moved the start to his hometown of Mol in celebration.

"Everyone was sympathetic towards me," Boonen explained engulfed by journalists after Scheldeprijs.

"It was really nice to ride the loop around my home in the beginning. This was a tremendously great experience seeing the people, who I can't manage to thank enough.

"But actually, my mind is on Roubaix this Sunday. I'm trying to ride as if wearing blinkers, but it is difficult. Actually, I wasn't that focused in the race."

Boonen snapped into action for team-mate and eventual winner Marcel Kittel and led the blue and white Quick-Step train over the last loop around Schoten.

"Tom Boonen did a good job, as a reward, we got the victory," Kittel explained. "This is his home race, my last race with him before he ends his career, and I am happy we could finish this way."

Race organiser Flanders Classics began the race with a loop by Boonen's school, his childhood home and his current home. The race finished to the west in Antwerp's suburb Schoten.

"That shows how professional he is because I could understand if he just wanted to train and pulled out of the final, but he goes in all. He sacrificed himself."

Kittel won five times: with Argos/Giant-Shimano in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and with Quick-Step in 2016 and 2017.

"I always said that I never had any role models in cycling, except for my father," explained Kittel. "And when I came to the team, and I have to be honest, I never realised what it was like to be with Tom Boonen, and I saw what is going on around him.

"There are not many riders in the peloton who draw so much attention and cheers.

"What always stood out for me was his working attitude. He is an inspiring athlete. He is very focused, and he knows himself very well. That also makes a difference between a very good rider and a great rider. He is a role model for everyone on our team."

Boonen will train around Kortrijk in the coming days, with a recon of Paris-Roubaix's large and dusty cobbles on Friday.

Tom Boonen says that the team blew up the Tour of Flanders on the Muur with 95 kilometres to race because they knew Team Sky were worried.

>>> Peter Sagan on Tour of Flanders crash: ‘It was partly my fault’

Boonen spoke with Sky's Luke Rowe ahead of the key moment. The winning split left a group of 14, with Boonen and team-mates Matteo Trentin and eventual winner Philippe Gilbert, and Sky's Rowe and Gianni Moscon.

"I was expecting Sky to go full-gas on the Muur," Boonen said.

"There was another race, I cannot remember when, but they tried some old cyclocross trick, when you have many guys go hard to the base, then pedal at three kilometres an hour, and then everyone behind you has to step out of the pedals, and then those at the front accelerate again.

"But then Rowe asked me if we were going to attack, and then I realised they were more afraid of us. So I said, 'screw it,' and decided to go for it."

Boonen's move forced a group that left behind the two pre-race favourites Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing).

Quick-Step, Sky and Direct Energie – with Sylvain Chavanel and Bryan Coquard – held the upper hand. Quick-Step, with three, let Gilbert keep his advantage after the Oude Kwaremont, which turned into a race-winning 55.5km solo ride.

"We ended up with a good group there, and everyone wanted to work. That was one of the nice things over the past few weeks, and everyone was only talking about two riders. We all wanted to ride together," Boonen continued.

"When we got close to the Kwaremont, I asked Phil how he was feeling, and said really good. I said, 'OK, I will go all-out to the base of the Kwaremont to try to block the race behind.'"

Rowe remained with Moscon, but crashed into a falling Sep Vanmarcke (Cannondale-Drapac) after the Oude Kwaremont with 52km remaining.

Boonen rode defensively behind and readied for the counter-moves. Given the chance, he could have raced for a fourth and record Tour of Flanders win. That changed quickly when Boonen suffered from bike problems on the Taaienberg at 37km to race.

"I was changing from the big ring to the small ring, and my chain slipped, and got stuck between the frame," added Boonen. "I pulled on it once, but it was really jammed. Then I got on another bike, and the same thing happened.

"They gave me Niki Terpstra's bike, and it was too small for me, and I knew then my race was over. Mentally that was very hard, because the race was going well."

Boonen, 36, ends his career with two more races. He will take part in the Scheldeprijs, which the organiser moved to start in his hometown of Mol on Wednesday, and Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.

He already won Paris-Roubaix four times, a fifth would set a record.

Tom Boonen (Quick-Step Floors) says that he is "not emotional" ahead of the his last cobbled Monuments, but that may change Sunday morning when the Tour of Flanders starts near his hometown in Antwerp.

The Belgian drove from his home in Mol in his black Porsche, spoke for 90 minutes and sped away.

>>> Quick-Step Floors name outrageously strong team for Tour of Flanders

"For the moment, not yet [emotional], I think maybe Sunday at the start it'll be a little bit different, also because we start in Antwerp, which is my home province," Boonen explained after the press conference on a boat docked in the port.

"I expect there will be more people from my region, as well. In the end, I try to stay focused until Paris-Roubaix, and it's working out, I don't have the mentality to cry every time at the finish line because it's my last time. This life stops at the end of Roubaix, then another one starts."

Boonen, 36, won races around the world, including the World Championship title and stages in the Tour de France. He counts three Tour of Flanders and four Paris-Roubaix titles; if he wins again in either monument he will set the record for the number of wins.

"I'm aware of everything that's going on, I read the newspaper every once and a while. It's like it's all happening beside me, sometimes you just notice something. With Scheldeprijs on Wednesday in my home town, that's going to be difficult to focus with the big circus at the start," he added.

"I know everyone is trying to get all the details of the career I had, but I'm not really aware of all the things that are going on because I'm trying to focus on Paris-Roubaix. Maybe it'll come after that, but we'll see. I'm not emotional about it now, but we'll see."

Sports director Wilfried Peeters also comes from Mol. He stood near the back of the boat and joked that he was the star from Mol before Boonen began his career in 2002.

"When Tom turned professional, we had Museeuw and then Tom came along," Peeters said. "We didn't know Tom was going to take his place. Maybe in two years, someone will become stronger and take that place. But he needs to be the package, not just the physically strong, but mentally.

"I'm not going to speak too much on [his retirement], sometimes it's too much about Tom Boonen. I don't want to speak too much about it until Roubaix ends."

Boonen and the team explained that he has better chances for Paris-Roubaix next Sunday, the day he will retire. Given the multiple options  that the Belgian WorldTour team has within its Classics squad, though, tactics may allow Boonen to ride away with a fourth Flanders title this Sunday.

"I'm going into both of them to get a result, but the key factor is to get the win with the team," Boonen said. "If it's me who 'has to do it' then I will, but it depends on how the race goes.

"The last few races it was always me waiting for the moment if it comes back to a sprint. In Ghent-Wevelgem I was leading out Gaviria, but he wasn't where he was supposed to be, but in the other [races] it was someone else in the front with me waiting behind. We'll see, maybe it's the same way on Sunday, or maybe not because you can never tell in Flanders."

Recently retired Classics great Fabian Cancellara, says that the rivalry between Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) is not the same as what he had with Tom Boonen in their golden years.

The Swiss stopped last year after winning Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix three times each. Often, he crossed swords with Quick Step’s Belgian Tom Boonen, who retires this April 9 after Paris-Roubaix.

>>> ‘You’d better work until three kilometres from the finish, instead of whining and waiting’

"It was me or him, it was always me and him, or you'd get a one-off, nothing against the other riders," Cancellara told Sporza.

"The Tour of Flanders from 2010 affected that status, then there were years I was in and he wasn't, or I was out and he was in. Still we rode in the peloton for years and that [duel] status came up.

"Now they talk about Peter Sagan and Greg Van Avermaet, the new duel, but it's not the same duel that Tom and I delivered to each other or the people watching at home."

Van Avermaet took some of his biggest wins against the Slovakian world champion. This year and last, the Belgian won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad ahead of Sagan.

Watch: Tour of Flanders essential guide

He attacked up the Kemmelberg in Ghent-Wevelgem on Sunday, Sagan raced to join him, and left his rival on the flats with Jens Keukeleire (Orica-Scott).

"I had many moments against Tom, but for sure [the 2010 Tour of Flanders] stands out. He was in the Belgian national jersey, I was as in the Swiss jersey.

"For sure, that day has its history, he was the favourite and the country was looking at that one day, then I was there and didn't move. For sure it was a duel, we went alone together, it turned out for me and I won."

Cancellara predicts exciting races over the next two weeks in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix because he said everyone good winters.

"Greg and Peter Sagan are maybe a level higher, but we've seen other riders at a big level," he said.

"The people at home make their comments about who's strongest, if it's Tom, if it's me, if it's Sagan or Van Avermaet. It's always different. I don't think you can say it's the best because all of us would have to be in that one race together."

Leader: Greg van Avermaet (BMC)

What a week it’s been for Greg Van Avermaet, who rode with devastating aggression to win both Friday’s E3 Harelbeke and Sunday’s Ghent-Wevelgem, becoming only the second rider in history to triumph in those races and Het Nieuwsblad in the same season.

The Belgian is clearly on the form of his life, and the one race he desires to win above all else takes place this Sunday - the Tour of Flanders. Victory there would seal what has up until now been the perfect spring.

Road Captain: Tom Boonen (Quick-Step Floors)

There was a stirring moment during the E3 Harelbeke when the soon-to-be-retired Tom Boonen took to the front of the peloton on the Taaienberg, a climb he has made his own over his esteemed career.

There was more to the move than just sentimental value, however. His explosive acceleration helped set-up a counter-attack from Philippe Gilbert that would shape the race’s major selection.

>>> Cobbled Classics 2017: Latest news, reports and info

Climber: Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)

As devastating as Alejandro Valverde’s punchy accelerations are, he usually rides the very biggest mountains in a more reserved, cautious manner, aware that he’s not as pure a climber as some of his rivals.

That was not the case on the queen stage of last week’s Volta a Catalunya, however, where he attacked Chris Froome (Sky) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo), no less, to ride to victory.

Sprinter: Lotta Lepistö (Cervelo-Bigla)

Lepisto was the main benefactor as the women’s editions of both Dwars Door Vlaanderen and Ghent-Wevelgem bucked the trend of recent years and culminated in large group sprints.

In both cases the Finnish rider - whose previous biggest victory had been a sprint to Kettering at last year’s Women’s Tour - managed to overcome the cobbled obstacles, and had the quickest kick the finish to defeat fearsome sprinters Gracie Elvin (Orica-Scott) in the former and Jolien d’Hoore in the latter.

She’s marked herself out as a major favourite for this weekend’s Tour of Flanders, although all the other favourites will now be intent on dropping her before the finish.

>>> Lotta Lepistö wins women’s Ghent-Wevelgem

Rouleur: Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors)

Quick-Step Floors might have left empty handed in the week’s two World Tour-ranked classics, but their emerging talent Lampart gave them something to celebrate when he finished off an exemplary one-two tactic with Philippe Gilbert at Dwars Door Vlaanderen to ride off for a solo victory.

Domestique: Marc Soler (Movistar)

23-year old Spaniard Marc Soler is probably going to be a star in his own right, but for now he makes for an invaluable domestique of Valverde’s.

He was able to keep up with the pace throughout the entire race, a reliable presence that dutifully stuck to Valverde’s side, and put in the decisive turn at the front of the peloton that paved the way for his leader’s stage-winning attack on Lo Port.

Domestique: Lisa Klein (Cervelo-Bigla)

Accompanying Lepisto in both her classics wins this weekend was young domestique Lisa Klein, who particularly impressed at the Dwars Door Vlaanderen, where she committed herself to ensuring that her leader was in contention to sprint for the victory.

Rival teams "dictated the races" to Quick-Step Floors in 2016, but one year later, the Belgian super team sits at the other side of the table.

Quick Step have tightly gripped the run of spring classics so far and claimed a podium in each. In yesterday's E3 Harelbeke, Philippe Gilbert and Tom Boonen launched a series of attacks that produced the winning move and Gilbert's eventual second place.

"We are multidimensional, yes, but then Greg won!" team boss Patrick Lefevere told Cycling Weekly.

He stood in the late-afternoon sunshine in Harelbeke. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) just beat his cyclist Philippe Gilbert, but the mood was hardly sour outside Quick Step's bus.

"We won on Wednesday, second here and third in Milan-San Remo," Lefevere continued. "Anyway, this is better than last year, when the race was dictated to us by the others. Now, we are taking the race in our hands. We first had the attack of Tom and then Philippe, and it was the good one."

>>> Greg Van Avermaet: ‘In hard races I know I can beat anyone’

Gilbert's winning attack pulled out Van Avermaet and Oliver Naesen (Ag2r La Mondiale). They rode free while Tom Boonen and Matteo Trentin controlled the situation behind.

The story read similarly on Wednesday in Dwars door Vlaanderen. Quick Step's Yves Lampaert rode away solo in Dwars door Vlaanderen and behind, Gilbert marked the small chase group and took second place for good measure.

In San Remo on Saturday, Julian Alaphilippe escaped with Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) to place third. Alaphilippe could force Sagan to work with top sprint favourite Fernando Gaviria in the group behind.

Lefevere had reason to smile in the Harelbeke sun. One year ago, it was quite different. Gilbert still raced with BMC and Boonen struggled to return to top form from a skull fracture.

"Tom was recovering until the last day before Paris-Roubaix last year. He's going much better than last year," Lefevere added.

"Gilbert is an offensive rider, so he fits very well in our team. He likes this team. So the team spirit is very good."

The team also includes several other champions: Matteo Trentin, Zdenek Stybar and Niki Terpstra.

The team will need such options to overcome Van Avermaet and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the cobbled monuments Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix over the following two Sundays.

Gilbert rides with Quick Step after several years in BMC Racing. And unlike BMC, Lefevere is putting him to good use in the cobbled classics. BMC, on the other hand, led with Van Avermaet and held back Gilbert, from Wallonia, for the Ardennes Classics.

"He was riding in this area since he was 15, so he knows every corner and every cobble. He has nothing to learn here in Flanders. Then, if you see how much the [Ardennes] classics changed in their parcours, you have to be a podium guy of the Tour de France to compete and win," Lefevere added.

"He's 34, he's clever, you saw that in the sprint. He was one second slower than the others, but he came back pretty strong. I think that if it's not a really hard race then it's difficult for him."

The line-up changes slightly with Ghent-Wevelgem tomorrow and the Three Days of De Panne during the coming week. Lefevere will rely more on Fernando Gaviria and Marcel Kittel. The idea remains the same: a race stranglehold for a Quick Step result.

Belgian Classics champion Tom Boonen (Quick-Step Floors) says that riders are already saying goodbye in the peloton with Paris-Roubaix and retirement approaching on April 9.

Boonen, who just competed Tirreno-Adriatico, will race Milan-San Remo on Saturday in support of Fernando Gaviria.

>>> Can Tom Boonen win his final Paris-Roubaix?

"A lot of guys already come to say goodbye because they're not doing the Classics," Boonen said ahead of his time trial ride on the final day of Tirreno-Adriatico.

"Many guys came to me and said, 'We are thing thinking about the races we're doing and we won't have that many races together any more, so I've come to say goodbye and good luck for the rest of your life.'"

The 36-year-old won the Tour of Flanders three times and Paris-Roubaix four times.

He will race Milan-San Remo, Ghent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix before calling it quits. He will retire with Paris-Roubaix, where he has the chance to set the record of five wins.

"No, Quintana, no! Hahah!" Boonen said when asked if the Tirreno-Adriatico winner said goodbye in the last week.

"But it's strange, someone comes to say goodbye and you realise that there are not that many races left any more.

"I know how it was when someone else used to stop and you'd go up to him and tell him how strange it'll be when he's not there any more. Then he's not there any more and nothing changes! The race goes on.

"With Johan [Museeuw] it was really strange because he was in the team, with Peter Van Petegem and all those guys. You have a good relationship with them and then suddenly they are going away from our own protective world and out to the big world."

Bradley Wiggins also closed a chapter with Paris-Roubaix. He stopped racing with Team Sky in the Roubaix velodrome in 2015 and began to focus on the Hour Record and Olympics.

"When was the last time I saw him? In the Tour of California, yeah," Boonen added. "Then Roubaix? Yeah, but he didn't stop after Roubaix! He stopped already 15 times! It doesn't work that way, eh! Or you stop or you don't stop and you keep racing!"

Boonen began his season with the Tour de San Juan in Argentina and raced the Tour of Oman before debuting in Europe this season.

"I'm not thinking about all the last things I'm doing, I'm thinking about that are coming up. I'm not aware that I'm doing things for the last time, otherwise, I don't think I'm focusing in the right way," continued Boonen.

"That's also why the last few months weren't hard for me, it was easy, I was in Argentina, Oman, I was training camps, the entire world was turning, and I just did my own thing like I did every year.

"In Belgium, it gets more busy. Of course, now we have two press conferences coming up for Flanders and Roubaix, it'll be a little bit more busy than normal. Personally, though, it'll be strange."

While Peter Sagan has his eyes on upcoming goals at Milan-San Remo and Tour of Flanders, he says that he would be pleased if Tom Boonen was able to end his career on a high at Paris-Roubaix.

Speaking to Sporza, Sagan said that Boonen was one of the favourites to win Paris-Roubaix, and that it would be great if the Belgian could end his career on a high in his final race.

>>> Can Tom Boonen win his final Paris-Roubaix?

"For sure Tom Boonen is a favourite to win Paris-Roubaix," Sagan said at Tirreno-Adriatico where he has won two stages.

"I will be very happy if he could win Paris-Roubaix again. He's a big name, a big rider, and it would be a great win for him."

Four-time Paris-Roubaix winner Boonen plans to retire after this year's edition of the race, drawing a close to a 16-year professional career that has also included six stage wins and a green jersey at the Tour de France, three Tour of Flanders victories, and a World Championship win in 2005.

>>> Paris-Roubaix teams announced

One race that neither Boonen nor Sagan have won is Milan-San Remo, which Sagan describes as a "very strange race".

Both riders will take to the start line in Milan on Saturday, with Sagan being the sole leader of his Bora-Hansgrohe team, while Tom Boonen could find some internal rivalry with fellow Quick-Step Floors rider Fernando Gaviria, who out-sprinted Sagan in the penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday.

When Tom Boonen rolls away from the start line in Compiègne next month, it will be his last Paris-Roubaix — and last race — of a long and very successful career.

Flanked by some of the best Classics domestiques in cycling, the Belgian will put everything on the line in a bid to score a fifth victory in the Hell of the North, surpassing ‘Monsieur Paris-Roubaix’ himself Roger De Vlaeminck, before resigning on the spot from professional cycling.

Many riders might find it difficult to work up an appetite for hard training with the prospect of a retirement that’s less on the horizon as it is just around the next corner.

But this is Tom Boonen and Paris-Roubaix. ‘Tommeke’ won’t be ready to stop fighting tooth and nail until he crosses the line in Roubaix’s municipal velodrome on the afternoon of Sunday, April 9.

>>> Paris-Roubaix live TV guide

He admits to becoming momentarily bogged down in wistful nostalgia post his final World Championship road race in Qatar last September, but throughout the following months he never took his eye off the prize.

“It was a little bit difficult to confront it after the Worlds,” he tells Cycling Weekly.

“I stayed in Qatar for a week with the family, so the day after the Worlds I was already knocked off for the holiday, I was like, ‘This is really the last World Championship, last winter coming up, last season coming up...’

“But the moment I got back home I got busy again and started training again, and from that moment until now, not one moment was a hassle.”

What’s more, he’s not the only one at the Quick-Step Floors team who is excited and determined to see him heave the prized cobblestone over his head one more time.

“My team-mates keep talking about it and they want to be there in the last Roubaix; they’re all motivated even more than other years,” he says.

Imposingly tall at 6ft 4in and with a wiry physique apparently devoid of body fat, Tom Boonen was perhaps born for the Classics.

At 36 and despite a thinning pate disguised by a buzzcut, and features that have spent the last 15 seasons being battered by sun, wind and rain, the youthfulness in his face that quickly made him a housewives’ favourite as a new pro remains.

So, apparently, does his ability to win races. At the Tour de San Juan in January he won the bunch sprint for stage two, beating Elia Viviani (Sky) and Andrea Guardini (UAE) in the process, and also scoring a second and a sixth.

Results like this augur well for Boonen, and he would probably point to what he describes as his most solid winter of training in years.

“I had 10 days off after the Worlds and [then] I had a normal winter, which was the first time in a long time, and yeah you feel it on the bike.

>>> Tom Boonen ‘one guy short’ of World Champs win

It makes a big difference. Last year I had a lot of doubt going into the season and now I’m actually pretty confident that I will do well,” he says, and nobody needs to remind him that the next few months are an all or nothing affair:

“Every race from now on is important. I don’t have anything to hide behind.

"I don’t know, I haven’t counted it yet, but I have maybe 30, 40 races left and that’s it, so… season stops in April.”

He will probably try not to think too much about the fact that this year’s will be his 13th participation in the race — unlucky for some — aside perhaps from giving himself a satisfied mental pat on the back at having racked up so many rides.

In a sport where the tiniest flick of a wheel somewhere in front can cause a season-ending crash, there are plenty who might counsel against placing so much stock in a single race, but Boonen is adamant that for him, nothing could make more sense:

“Everything started [for me] with Paris-Roubaix. The Classics are my favourite time in the season.

“And for the motivation, it’s easier for me to give 100 per cent for that period knowing that I’m stopping, and after that… it’s the end. Finished. To do another year and then stop after, I don’t know, the World Championship, it’s completely different. It’s better for me [to stop at Roubaix].”

Boonen isn’t the only one convinced he’s retiring at the right time.

Quick Step boss Patrick Lefevere, with whom Boonen has worked almost his entire career, riled his charge by suggesting he should retire after the Spring Classics last year and avoid doing a year too many.

Watch now: Cobbled Classics essential guide

To which Boonen retorted in a Het Nieuwsblad interview: “If you’re racing, happy and well, then you still count. I’m not going away.

I don’t see why anyone should interfere with the retirement of someone’s career.”

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Lefevere is full of praise for the rider who has brought Quick Step some of its most celebrated moments, saying the team would miss him a lot, but the time to stop had arrived.

“As a lot of people know with me, I’m somebody who wants people to stop on the right moment, not doing one year too much, hoping and hoping and hoping,” Lefevere says.

“He’s still in physical condition to win big races, but for me it’s a big dream to stop when you’re still on the top.

Everybody thinks it’s easy to win Paris-Roubaix but not many riders can say, ‘I’ve won what Tom Boonen won.’ ”

>>> Who will win the major 2017 Spring Classics? Here’s what the bookies think

Despite his star status, Boonen doesn’t lack time for the younger riders on his team, says Lefevere:

“He’s a big champion but he’s the first to go to riders and say, ‘How are you?’ and they’re shaking because he’s Tom Boonen... but he takes this stress away immediately.

"He does the right things at the right moment and everyone on the team loves him.”

First mud

Boonen was smitten by Paris-Roubaix from his first participation in 2002, where he finished third having ridden in the front group all day.

“That first time, I was scared,” he admits, and who could blame him?

It was a filthy day, with rain and thick mud in abundance. At the finish all the riders were caked in it, but Boonen, for one, was also smiling broadly:

“It was my first time on a Classics podium and that began a little love story with the race for me.

After crossing the line, I fell down on the track and at that moment right there I said to my mother, ‘I think I’ve found something I’m good at!’ And now, at the end of my career, it’s once again Paris-Roubaix.”

The 21-year-old boy from Balen, Eastern Flanders, certainly had a point that day. It was something he was good at indeed.

After another top 10 in 2004, he drove the point home emphatically in 2005 when, having won first E3 and then the Tour of Flanders, he outsprinted George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Fassa Bortolo) in a three-up drag race to win his first Paris-Roubaix.

“This is more than unbelievable!” he beamed afterwards. But it was real, and there was a lot more to come including the world road title that September.

Over the next two years, fans and media slowly lost confidence in Boonen and he was accused of losing his touch.

In hindsight this seems grossly unjust — almost incomprehensible in fact — looking at the extensive list of wins he amassed during that period.

These included the Tour of Flanders, E3 and Scheldeprijs in 2006, followed by three semi-Classics and a pair of Tour de France stage wins the following season.

But let’s not forget that he had been hailed the new Eddy Merckx after his Flanders-Roubaix double in 2005 — something that was always going to create impossible expectations.

In 2008, 17th place at Flanders saw pressure on Boonen crank up another notch, despite purportedly turning domestique for the day and working for eventual winner Stijn Devolder.

“Boonen knows it has to be another story at Paris-Roubaix,” said Cycling Weekly at the time.

“If he misses out on Roubaix for a third year running then he will lose his status as top Classics leader in Quick Step.”

But a week later he proved he was far from finished, arriving at the Roubaix velodrome with Fabian Cancellara and Alessandro Ballan four minutes ahead of the chasers and comfortably outsprinting them both.

‘Boonen is back!’ screamed the headlines, while the man himself was clearly satisfied and relieved in equal measure.

“A week ago after not winning Flanders, it seemed nobody believed in me any more,” he said. “Well, here’s my answer.”

Equally defiant was Lefevere, who criticised the Belgian press for losing faith. “Why do the papers always want to whip up a negative attitude among the fans?” he demanded.

“Tom won, that’s what matters. It’s only in Belgium that sporting heroes come in for so much flak.”

Two positives for cocaine (not sanctionable because they were out of competition) had fuelled his critics, but Boonen underlined his return to top form the following spring when a typically attritional Roubaix saw him go clear with 16km to go at the Carrefour de l’Arbre and solo to victory.

>>> Boonen gets first win since cocaine positive

Labelling it his toughest win yet, Boonen quipped: “Paris-Roubaix is a simple race to win, you just have to be sure you don’t die.”

After a brace of relatively barren years which were even dubbed the “wilderness years” in the media, the Belgian stormed back in 2012 to remind everybody that, 10 years after his first Paris-Roubaix podium, he was still one of the best Classics riders in the world.

Seven days after winning his third Tour of Flanders, he pulled off what was arguably his most impressive Roubaix victory yet, breaking away alone with 54 kilometres still to race and soloing to victory two minutes ahead of second-placed Sébastian Turgot of Europcar.

>>> Boonen wins 2012 Paris-Roubaix with unstoppable solo attack

Some raised an eyebrow at the fact that Fabian Cancellara — one man who could have stood between Boonen and victory — was sitting at home with a broken collarbone, but the way in which Boonen won the race prompted even his Swiss nemesis to tweet:

“Boonen is motivated to win alone and not like the other races in the sprint. #mental power. Looks like it’s gonna happen.”

With that, Boonen cemented his place among the Classics greats, and equalled ‘Monsieur Paris Roubaix’ Roger de Vlaeminck’s record of four wins. M. Paris-Roubaix himself was scornful of Boonen’s win, however, calling it “a sad affair”.

“I knew that he would be next to me [in having four wins]. Tom can’t help it that he had no opposition. They were not second but third-rate riders,” he told Het Nieuwsblad.

He also said Boonen should win a wider variety of Classics, implying he shouldn’t be considered his equal until he did, but conceded: “He’s the best spring rider of the last 20 years.”

And that was Boonen’s last Roubaix victory. Going into this April’s race he will be 36 and five years will have passed since that win — and yet Boonen still has a wolflike appetite for another win there.

He showed as much last year when he came within a whisker of taking it, to be edged into second place by Mat Hayman (Orica GreenEdge) in a four-up sprint with Ian Stannard (Sky) and Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo).

He still has the desire, and if he is to be believed, the ability. “I’m 1,000 per cent sure that I can do better than last year,” he tells CW.

“Last year I was maybe 85 per cent of my possibilities — I was a ghost of me and I was still pretty good.”

It’s a bold prediction but as we saw with that huge solo break in 2012, he’s not shy of laying it all on the line.

In January, Quick Step unveiled a feature-length film about their 2016 season, called One Year in Blue.

One scene, filmed in a team car with Boonen in the passenger seat, summarises his approach: “Sometimes you don’t need a plan,” he says.

“You just need big balls.”

Quick-Step Floors team leader Tom Boonen will not ride today's Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, with the team saying that he is suffering from "stomach problems".

Despite crashing in yesterday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Boonen had been expected to take part in today's race, an event that he has previously won on three occasions. However Quick-Step confirmed on Twitter that he would not be taking to the start line, and with no replacement available that they will start with only seven riders.

The Belgian Classics legend, who is riding his last few races with retirement planned after Paris-Roubaix, crashed with around 60 kilometres remaining in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday. He continued to ride for a short distance before abandoning, although didn't appear to be suffering from anything more than road rash.

Boonen will now travel to Italy to take part in Tirreno-Adriatico, which starts on March 8, before returning to Belgium in the second half of the month for his last few races as a professional.

Despite questions over their safety in the peloton, the custom painted bike on which Tom Boonen starts Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will be equipped with disc brakes. The Belgian superstar does not believe they are any more dangerous than any other component of the bike.

Team Sky’s Owain Doull believes the cut on his left foot and the deep slice through the fabric of his shoe was sustained after coming into contact with the brake rotor on Marcel Kittel’s bike. However, Boonen told Cycling Weekly he does not believe his team mate’s bike was to blame.

“It’s impossible to cut your left shoe on a disc,” the Quick-Step Floors rider said at a pre-race press conference in Kortrijk on Friday. “I don’t get what the fuss is about, he probably just hit the fence, so let’s discuss the fences, they are more dangerous.”

Last month Boonen became the first rider to win a professional road race using disc brakes and he is clearly unconcerned by their use.

“The rest of the bike is not soft,” he continued. “It’s not made of papier maché. I had a chainring in my butt one time.

>>> Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Seven things we’re looking forward to

“Discs are now being discussed because it is new, and like everything in cycling it’s hard to get people to change their minds, and these guys who are now shouting the loudest have never tried it before, they just say it’s bad and dangerous.

“I don’t see any danger in it. It is the next step and I’m sure in five years we will look back and say we were stupid.”

Boonen cut a relaxed figure as he answered journalists’ questions, seemingly unperturbed that after 14 attempts he has never won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

“It won’t change a lot if win it, but I will try as hard as I can,” he smiled. “It is one of those races, normally I am here approaching my best level but never on it, and you are racing against guys who make an objective of this weekend.

“Guys that have been good in Omloop mostly start to get worse after Tirreno [Adriatico] or Paris-Nice, as the classics approach they don’t have that extra two per cent.

“It’s a long time from Omloop to Paris-Roubaix.”

Boonen will bow out of professional cycling after this year’s Paris-Roubaix on April 9. He has won the Queen of the Classics four times, sharing that record with compatriot Roger de Vlaeminck. However, no rider since Johan Museeuw in 2000 has won both races, though that statistic will not stop him in Ghent today.

“I’m not going to brake to come second,” he smiled. “But maybe I can be the first guy to do it and that would be another thing unique in cycling.”

On the seat tube of the disc-equipped Specialized Venge Boonen will ride today is written, “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die”.

Should he follow victory today with a fifth success on the Roubaix velodrome in six weeks legendary status will be assured for Boonen. If it’s not already.

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) immediately thought of his fallen rival Tom Boonen (Quick Step Floors) after winning the Tour of Oman's stage one to Naseem Park.

Boonen fell in the final kilometre as the teams revved up their engines for the final blast.

>>> Alexander Kristoff sprints to victory on Tour of Oman stage one

Early reports suggest that he touched his front wheel with another rider's rear wheel. He crossed the line with the back of his jersey ripped in several spots and rode to the 25km to the hotel.

"It was on the other side of the road from where I was," Kristoff explained of the crash.

"I heard on the right side there was a crash and heard later it was Tom, which was a pity. For sure he'll try again another day if he's not badly injured."

The Norwegian, who already one once this year in the Etoile de Bessèges, finished ahead of Italians Kristian Sbaragli (Dimension Data) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida).

Marco Haller kept him out of danger in the final kilometre after Katusha worked earlier in the day.

"I knew it'd be a headwind and very tight with a lot of riders because they sit on the wheel and then they come to the front. I made sure I was on the left side where it was more open," Kristoff added.

Boonen's team "Quick-Step took the right side and waited, and it was really tight. They were unlucky. I think Boonen went down with one kilometre to go.

"He would have made for tough competition in the end, so that was a pity. With the chaos, I'm happy I was able to come to the front without crashing."

Quick Step's sports directors arrived and parked in the adjacent garden. They said that they would not comment because they had not seen the crash, but later confirmed that Boonen would start stage two on Wednesday.

The crash and Kristoff's sprint sparked the tail-end of a quiet day through the rugged Oman countryside dotted occasionally with Simr trees.

After falling sick with a fever in last year Classics, Kristoff hopes to find the form in the desert that allowed him to win the 2014 Milan-San Remo and 2015 Tour of Flanders.

"It's always nice to start with wins. We already managed to get one in Oman on the first day," Kristoff said.

"If we get any more it'll be a bonus and it'll be great. The last stage will be for me, but we have riders for the other stages. We are going to be doing some good training here in Oman and getting ourselves ready for the races to come."

Leader: Nikias Arndt (Sunweb)

Having made a name for himself as a promising pure sprinter by winning the final stage of the Giro last year, Arndt proved a capable Classics rider too by winning the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race, the week’s sole WorldTour race.

Despite having dug deep to stay in the select lead group, he had the strength of mind to time his sprint to perfection despite Cameron Meyer’s (Dimension Data) threatening early move, and the legs to come around him in the final few metres and fend off Simon Gerrans (Orica-Scott)

Team Captain: Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS)

Van Vleuten had been assigned the role of domestique at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in service of Katrin Garfoot and Amanda Spratt, but upon realising on one of the key climbs that they had both lost pace, took it upon herself to resume leadership.

The change of plan proved successful, as she made the lead group instigated by an attack from Emma Pooley, then won the five-woman sprint at the finish line.

Sprinter: Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors)

The Colombian blitzed his way to two early wins on both bunch sprints of the Tour de San Juan he competed in. He’d probably have won more, too, had he not switched roles to lead Tom Boonen out for victory on stage two, and had Quick-Step’s rivals managed to catch Max Richeze’s couple of late stage-winning attacks on the last two days of the race.

Climber: Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal)

Bringing his best climbing legs to Mallorca, Wellens pulled-off back-to-back victories on Friday and Saturday. First he took on the hilly finale of the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana with a lone break, flourishing, as he so often does, in the rainy conditions; then at Trofeo Port de Andratx he sprinted up the short finishing climb to defeat the master of such finishes, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).

Time trialist: Ramunas Navardauskas (Bahrain-Merida)

The rider known as the ‘Honey Badger’ for his fighting spirit won the time trial stage of the Tour de San Juan, marking the first ever win for new team Bahrain-Merida, and the first ever triumph against the clock for Navardauskas (outside of the Lithuanian national championships).

Domestique: Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb)

After winning the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race, Arndt singled out Wilco Kelderman as a key reason and inspiration for the result. The Dutchman - newly signed by Sunweb for this season - gave a huge turn to pace his leader, in what turned out to be a crucial moment in ensuring Arndt was still in the lead group to sprint for victory.

Domestique: Tom Boonen (Quick-Step Floors)

He may be a cycling superstar approaching the end of his career with nothing more to prove, but Boonen remains a game team player. He gave a lead-out to Fernando Gaviria for both his stage wins at the Tour de San Juan, also doing some key turns at the front to ensure a break was reeled in for the second, and found time in-between to win a sprint stage of his own.

Belgian Tom Boonen (Quick-Step Floors) says that he could not stop on the heels of fracturing his skull in 2015 Abu Dhabi Tour, that the magical moment will be Paris-Roubaix on April 9.

Boonen, who won the Tour of Flanders three times and Paris-Roubaix four times, will retire when he arrives in the Roubaix velodrome in northern France.

"A lot of circumstances came together," he told Het Nieuwsblad in Argentina, where he is beginning his 2017 campaign.

"I couldn't just quit after the skull fracture. I was not at my normal level the season afterwards. So there had to be another year.

"I never saw myself stopping in the GP Fourmies or a race like that. I wanted to stop on the Roubaix velodrome. I was born a cyclist, and I love that place."

A crash in stage two of the Abu Dhabi Tour scared the cycling world when doctors rushed to examining Boonen's head. They took him to a hospital, where he recovered for a week before flying back to Belgium.

That incident nor Boonen struggling to re-gain fitness through the spring was not the proper final act for a Classics great.

Through 2016 – returning to win RideLondon and the Brussels Cycling Classic, and placing third in the Worlds – Boonen considered retirement.

Just as Bradley Wiggins ended his road career, Boonen as well would ride through to the Hell of the North.

"I'm sixteen years pro' and so very often went away from home. If I call and ask Lore, and ask if our two small men miss me, she says, 'Not really, because you are never home.' They are now at an age when they should see more of daddy."

Watch: Our review of Tom Boonen's 2017 bike, the Specialized Venge Vias

The 36-year-old from Mol will head the powerful Quick-Step Floors team one last time through the Classics with the team's new signee and former world champion, Philippe Gilbert.

Judging by the Tour de San Juan in Argentina, he should have a fruitful spring. He led team-mate Fernando Gaviria to the sprint win on day one and sprinted to victory himself the next day.

It was the first win by a rider on disc brakes in professional cycling.

"Never say never. That's what I learned," Boonen replied when asked if his decision was final.

"There's always doubt, especially if you are still riding well, as I am now. You inevitably think, there's more in the tank.

"And it's true, I could easily go two or three years more. Not at the highest level, but slightly lower. But you have to think it is going to stop at some time, and why not do so at a peak while I still love the bike?"

Tom Boonen (Quick-Step Floors) says that he is "proud" to make history as he delivered the first professional victory for disc brake bikes in Argentina's Vuelta a San Juan.

The Belgian classics star and former world champion sprinted to victory in stage two riding a Specialized Venge ViAS Disc, beating Elia Viviani (Italy), who took the overall lead.

He wrote on Instagram, "First victory of the year! Proud to be the first pro to win a race on my #venge with #discbrakes. I have been a big fan of this massive improvement from the start. @iamspecialized_road it doesn't only add safety it also gives you better control of the bike braking into corners. #dirtyfaceswinraces"

A day earlier, he led out team-mate Fernando Gaviria for the win, with the two swapping roles on Wednesday.

Boonen says that he will race on a disc brake bike in every race in 2017, until he retires following Paris-Roubaix on April 9. He is using both the Specialized Venge and Roubaix frames this season.

The UCI gave the green light for teams to use disc brakes in 2017, instead of traditional calipers, in all races following a rocky start.

>>> Would dropping the UCI weight limit put an end to disc brake bikes in professional races?

After an initial trial period late in 2015, the UCI allowed teams to start using them at the beginning of 2016. That abruptly stopped after Francisco Ventoso alleged that he had been injured by a disc rotor in a crash in Paris-Roubaix.

The Spaniard said that the cut to his left leg was caused by another cyclist's disc brake. Teams Direct Energie and Lampre-Merida were using disc-equipped bikes in the race, but said that none of their riders crashed in the same cobble sector as Ventoso.

Watch: Eight things you need to know about disc brakes

Under pressure, and only four mouths into the season, the UCI banned disc brake use in professional races.

Manufactures like Shimano, Campagnolo and SRAM had to re-design its rotors. Satisfied, the UCI allowed them back in, but with dull edges, instead of square ones, and rounded, not jagged.

So far, only Shimano and SRAM have rolled out disc brakes in races, with Italian manufacturer Campagnolo yet to do so.

Boonen's win may help diffuse the use of the new brakes in the professional ranks and among amateurs.

>>> UCI asks pro riders for feedback as it prepares to start second disc brake trial

Disc brakes still have their critics, however. Some say wheel changes take too long, they are too noisy and they are dangerous due to their design and the different braking speeds produced compared to those using callipers in the peloton.

Ventoso likened them to spinning knives after his crash, and Sam Bewley (Orica-Scott) last year posted a photo showing burns from a hot disc that he collided with.

Boonen had nothing but praise for them when his season kicked off in Argentina. Of note, he will reportedly work in public relations for Specialized after he retires from racing.

Tom Boonen handed his Quick-Step Floors team its second consecutive stage victory in the 2017 Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina, winning the bunch sprint on stage two.

The 36-year-old Belgian is in his final season as a professional, having claimed well in excess of 100 victories, many in the sport's biggest events. The stage win is his first of the season, which will culminate in one final ride in Paris-Roubaix in April.

"I'm happy to win in Argentina, in front of these unbelievable fans," said Boonen. "It's incredible how many people came at the start and at the finish, you can really feel how much they love cycling and how passionate they are about it."

Boonen benefited from a lead-out from stage one winner Fernando Gaviria, paying back Boonen's same role the previous day.

>>> Fernando Gaviria outsprints Elia Viviani in chaotic finish to Vuelta a San Juan stage one

Once again, it was Elia Viviani (Italy) who came home as runner-up, but his consistency means that he takes the overall race lead from Gaviria.

"Right from the start of the day, the plan was to do the sprint for me, after going with Fernando on stage onem" said Boonen. "In the final kilometre, both Max [Richeze] and Fernando did an awesome job and I got the better of Elia. I want to thank them for their help, because in the end, this is a team win."

>>> Watch: Chaos at Vuelta a San Juan as riders forced to climb over barriers to complete stage

The short 128.8-kilometre stage around San Juan was largely dictated by a five-man break. They were never allowed much breathing room by the peloton, and the race came back together for a bunch finish – this time, with riders all going the right way to avoid the chaos at the end of stage one.

Boonen's win is notable for being the first road race victory achieved on a bike equipped with disc brakes.

Viviani goes into the race's stage three 11.9km individual time trial with a slim one second lead over Gaviria, with Boonen in third at two seconds. The seven-stage UCI-2.1-ranked race concludes on Sunday, January 19.

Results

Vuelta a San Juan 2017, stage two: San Juan to San Juan, 128.8km

1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step Floors

2. Elia Viviani (Ita) Italy

3. Matteo Malucelli (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec

4. Daniel Ricardo (Arg) Agrupacion Virgen De Fatima

5. Andrea Guardini (Ita) UAE Abu Dhabi

6. Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Bahrain-Merida

7. Luke Keough (USA) UnitedHealthcare

8. Manuel Belletti (Ita) Wilier Triestina

9. Eugenio Alafaci (Ita) Trek-Segafredo

10. Mattia Viel (Ita) Unieuro Trevigiani-Hemus 1896, all same time

General classification after stage two

1. Elia Viviani (Ita) Italy, in 6-08-12

2. Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors, at 1 sec

3. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step Floors, at 2 secs

4. Franco German (Arg) Agrupacion Virgen De Fatima, at 6 secs

5. Matteo Malucelli (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec, at 8 secs

6. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain Merida, at 12 secs

7. Gavin Mannion (USA) UnitedHealthcare, at 12 secs

8. Duilio Ramos (Arg) Asociacion Civil Mardan, at 12 secs

9. Oscar Sevilla (Esp) Medellin-Inder, at 12 secs

10. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo, at 12 secs

Belgian Tom Boonen admits that he was just one man short of winning a second world title in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday and closing out his successful career with a rainbow on his back.

The Belgian team took the 2016 Worlds under control along with Great Britain after the turnaround point in the Qatari desert. Wind shattered the peloton and forced the riders into small echelons.

Boonen appeared ready for the final on the Pearl circuit. The Belgian team in light blue protected him and he sprinted. Slovakian Peter Sagan won his second consecutive title and Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) navigated through for silver. Boonen took home the bronze medal.

"We were one guy short for a perfect lead-out, I had to wait for the sprint in the end," Boonen said.

>>> Mark Cavendish on World Champs disappointment: ‘I lost gold, instead of winning silver’

"It's good to be third and not fourth – we had two tactics: Greg Van Avermaet would cover attacks from [Dutchman] Niki Terpstra. Jürgen [Roelandts] did an amazing job, but you cannot change the result anymore, so it doesn't matter."

Like Sagan, Boonen would have secured a second world title. His would have come 11 years after his win in Madrid in 2005. It also would have capped off a career that includes three wins in the Tour of Flanders and four in Paris-Roubaix.

The 36-year-old from Mol will retire in April 2017 after Paris-Roubaix ends in the velodrome.

Regardless, he left Doha "happy" with the Worlds.

"We took our responsibility, we took control of the race and made it hard – I am happy with the result in the end. The way I am sprinting right now, I think I got the maximum out of the race," Boonen said.

He will face an ever-improving Sagan next spring as he tries to end his career with another classics title.

"Is Sagan beatable? What's that question? He's won a few races, but he hasn't won everything… Everybody is beatable."

Mario Cipollini knows a thing or two about winning the World Championships road race and is backing Tom Boonen to fare well should crosswinds affect Sunday's event in Doha.

Riders will face a 250km route on Sunday, with 150 of those kilometres through the Qatari desert, where crosswinds could come into play to split the peloton, although Cipollini is not a fan of the UCI's plan to reduce the race to 100km should the temperatures get too high.

If the race is reduced the peloton will not head out to the desert, instead simply competing over 100km on the finishing circuit on the Pearl Qatar.

With a full complement of nine riders in the race, Cipollini, the world champion in 2002, believes the Belgian team will be the one to take advantage of any echelons that could form before the race hits the finishing circuit.

"When the wind blows hard, Boonen has a great advantage over all the others," Cipollini told HLN.be. "I think that Boonen is in great shape, physically and mentally. He is for me the big favourite for this World Championships."

>>> Mario Cipollini: Nibali should have offered Henao money to help him win Olympic gold

Boonen knows the course well, Cipollini points out, having won the Tour of Qatar on four occasions. The Italian also dismisses the claim that Boonen is too old to challenge the likes of Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel.

"I was 36 when I became world champion in Zolder in 2002," he said, noting that Boonen celebrates his 36th birthday the day before the race.

Tom Boonen and Greg Van Avermaet will share leadership duties at the UCI World Championships road race in Doha next month, having been named in a Belgium squad boasting a rider for every eventuality.

Boonen will be the man to contest the race if it comes down to a bunch sprint in downtown Doha despite a heavy crash which saw him abandon the Eneco Tour last week.

Van Avermaet will probably be given more of a free role to attack the race should it break down in the crosswinds in the length desert section of the course in Qatar.

Alongside the Classics pairing, possible backup plans exist with the likes of Jens Debusschere, Jurgen Roelandts and Jasper Stuyven, the latter of which foiled the sprinters in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne this year with a late solo attack.

Etixx-Quick Step duo Iljo Keisse and Nikolas Maes, Vuelta a España stage winner Jens Keukeleire and Eneco Tour runner up Oliver Naesen round out the road race squad.

An essential guide to the UCI World Championships

Dylan Groenewegen is likely to be the protected rider in the Netherlands squad for the road race, having won stage one of the Eneco Tour and stage four of the Tour of Britain.

Team Sky's Danny van Poppel is also in the squad to add to the firepower in the potential sprint finish, with a team made up of strong leadout men.

Tom Dumoulin and Jos van Emden, who will both compete in the time trial, are joined by former Tour of Britain winner Dylan van Baarle, John Degenkolb's right-hand man Koen de Kort, Eneco Tour winner Niki Terpstra, Tom Leezer, and Sebastian Langeveld.

As usual, the Netherlands have several opportunities to win in the women's race, with the likes of Anna van der Breggen, Chantal Blaak, Ellen van Dijk and Marianne Vos in the squad.

The leadership may be handed to sprinter Kirsten Wild, who performed well at the Tour of Qatar in the spring.

For Belgium, Wiggle-High5's Jolien d'Hoore will fly the flag in the women's race in what is a race almost exclusively taking place on the downtown circuit.

Greg Van Avermaet admits he may not be the best card the Belgium team has to play at the World Championships in October, but says the confidence he's taken from his Olympic Games victory makes him feel he can win the rainbow stripes.

Tom Boonen is believed to be the trump card in a race that is almost certain to come down to a bunch sprint. The Classics legend has won three races since July 23 to prove that he is still among the best fast men in the peloton.

But Van Avermaet, the perennial Classics runner up, hopes his Rio 2016 road race triumph will allow him to take a free role in the World Championships and also target the win.

"We must go with the Belgian team as outsiders to the World Championships and see what it is. Tom Boonen certainly has a chance in the sprint, but I see myself playing a free role," he said, quoted in Sporza.

"I hope to do during the World Championships what I love to do, which is attack.

"The Olympic title brings me some peace. I have had to prove my entire career that I could do it, but with that gold medal that has happened. The recognition is there now."

The 2016 UCI road World Championships takes place in Doha, Qatar between October 9-16, with the men's road race contested over a flat 257.5km course.

To mark Tom Boonen's final professional race in Belgium, organisers of Scheldeprijs have decided to start the race in the home town of the two-time winner.

Boonen will bow out of the sport after Paris-Roubaix next April, having signed a short-term contract with Etixx-Quick Step to give him one last shot at the Classics.

The 35-year-old won Scheldeprijs in both 2004 and 2006 and will look to add a third in 2017 when the race rolls out from Mol - the town where he grew up.

"I was incredibly honoured when the organizers of the Scheldeprijs put their plan to me. I feel especially proud and grateful," Boonen said at the route announcement.

"It'll be a unique day for my fans and promises to be extra busy with the start in Mol but I'm happy about it. Of course I'll quick go to bed afterwards because I remain ambitious for Paris-Roubaix."

Scheldeprijs falls in between the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in April. Boonen finished 15th in Flanders this year before losing out in a final sprint to Mat Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge) at Paris-Roubaix the following Sunday.

"I was pleasantly surprised when the question came," the mayor of Mol told the press conference. "We are very proud that we can organise the departure of Boonen, a rider who means a lot to us."

Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) won the fourth edition of RideLondon ahead of Mark Renshaw (Dimension Data) and Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange) in a bunch sprint.

Earlier on it had looked as though he and the other sprinters had been put out of contention, after Geraint Thomas (Sky) had built a considerable lead ahead of the peloton, which stood at almost three minutes with just 25km to go.

>>> Rider remains in serious condition after RideLondon-Surrey 100 crash

But the Welshman, who had attacked from a seven-man breakaway group with 50km still to ride, quickly tired while the peloton organised their chase, so that the catch was made as the race entered central London with a few kilometres to go.

In the sprint Boonen timed his acceleration perfectly, moving to the far right-hand side on the wide finishing straight along The Mall to finish comfortably ahead of Renshaw, stretched out on the other side.

His win was especially impressive considering the fact that Boonen had suffered a puncture, then was later was dropped on the hilly circuit in the middle of the race.

Despite these setbacks, his Etixx-Quick Step team helped him catch back up to the peloton, then chase down Thomas and the other remnants of earlier breaks to bring everything back for a sprint finish.

Earlier in the race Sky had made it their mission to animate the proceedings. With just over 90km to go they made their first move, with Thomas and Ian Stannard attacking with Patrick Bevin (Cannondale-Drapac).

The trio caught up with the four surviving members of the day’s break - Britain’s Matt Holmes (Madison Genesis), Jelle Wallays (Lotto-Soudal), Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and defending champion Jempy Drucker (BMC) - 65km from the finish, shortly before Thomas made his solo bid for freedom on Box Hill.

The Welshman committed to his move and built a lead that became stable at around one minute ahead of the them.

On Wimbledon Hill 14km from the finish Stannard himself attacked, making possible the prospect of the two Sky teammates riding together to the finish. But by this point the peloton was flying, and they caught the rest of the break, then Stannard, and finally Thomas in quick succession.

There was an attack from Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani-CSF) in the closing stages, but the peloton ensured everything came down to a sprint finish.

The earlier break may have been unsuccessful, but there were consolations for Drucker and Holmes in the form of the mountains classification, which they were jointly awarded having claimed the same amount of points over the day’s peaks, and Lastra, who won the sprint competition.

The incidents in the race’s preceding sportive, where two serious crashes caused major delays and diversions as an air ambulance was called to the scene, also had an effect on this race, which was delayed for almost half an hour due to congestion in Dorking.

RideLondon-Surrey Classic 2016 (202.3km)

1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Etixx-QuickStep in 4-43-56

2. Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data

3. Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange

4. Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto-Soudal

5. Jaroslaw Marycz (Pol) CCC Sprandi-Polkowice

6. Paolo Simion (Ita) Bardiani-CSF

7. Floris Gerts (Ned) BMC

8. Tobyn Horton (GBR) Madison-Genesis

9. Steele Von Hoff (Aus) ONE Pro Cycling

10. Mark McNally (GBR) Wanty-Groupe Gobert all at same time

Tom Boonen has announced that he will retire from cycling after the 2017 Paris-Roubaix and has signed a new short-term contract with Etixx-Quick Step.

The Belgian, who has won Paris-Roubaix four times in his glittering career, continues his long association with Quick-Step, having ridden for the same team since 2003.

He finished second in the Hell of the North in 2016, losing out to Mathew Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge) in the famous Roubaix velodrome.

"I'm very happy and delighted what we came to an agreement. It's important for me to stay in this team, as I've basically spent my entire career here and enjoyed many beautiful moments, reaching some big goals", said Boonen.

"I know everybody since the inception of the team and I consider this squad as my second family. To be quite frank, I don't see myself with another [team's] jersey. It will be great to embark again with this strong team on a new adventure in the one-day cobbled races."

Boonen was crowned world champion in 2005, winning the second of his three Tours of Flanders in the rainbow jersey. Four Roubaix titles between 2005 and 2012, five wins at E3 Harelbeke, three Ghent-Wevelgems and the Tour de France points jersey are just some of Boonen's wins, which tally over 100 in total.

Tom Boonen (Etixx-Quick Step) wasn't a happy man on Sunday afternoon. Not only was he beaten in a sprint at the Ronde van Limburg, he also had to get changed in a very public place before heading to the podium.

The top finishers in the Belgian race were forced to get changed for the podium celebrations in an open bus shelter at the side of the road in Tongeren after the facility provided by the organisers wasn't up to scratch.

Boonen and race winner Kenny Dehaes (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) were pictured in various states of undress in the shelter, trying to get out of the clothes they had ridden through inclement weather in.

"They know it is going to be bad weather all day and then they [put] you here in a bus shelter. Oh well..." Boonen told hbvl.be afterwards.

Organisers had reportedly provided a changing tent for the riders, but it did not have enough chairs in it. Lets hope one of the riders didn't accidentally flag down a bus when they were trying to change their jersey...

Tom Boonen (Etixx-Quick Step) was among the riders present at a meeting hosted by the Belgian Cycling Federation to look into rider safety during races.

The call to action came from the incident involving Lotto-Soudal rider Stig Broeckx at the Belgium Tour in May, which left the rider in an induced coma after being hit by a motorbike.

Four-time Paris-Roubaix winner Boonen says involving riders and team managers in the conversation process is an important step.

"Riders see a race very different from the organisation," he told Sporza, "so it's a good thing that we have exchanged ideas.

"There were useful things [discussed] in [the meeting], which cost no effort in the short term and very little money."

Stage three of the Belgium Tour was cancelled after the Broeckx incident. It is believed that a motorbike crashed into another bike and then collided with the peloton.

It was the second time the Lotto rider has been involved in a collision with a moto in racing this season, having broken his collarbone in an accident at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

While much of the emphasis has been put on the race organisers to ensure that motorbike riders don't take risks when moving past the peloton, Boonen argues that the riders themselves have a role to play in improving safety.

"It is especially important that there is a change in mentality among cyclists. There is too much selfishness in the peloton, riders forget that they are responsible for the safety of others."

Tom Boonen should have come to a deal with Mathew Hayman to allow him to win his fifth Paris-Roubaix in April, according to 1990 winner Eddy Planckaert.

Het Laatste Nieuws reports that Planckaert, who works as an analyst for Sporza, said that Boonen had made a "big mistake" by not offering Hayman something to effectively throw the race, as was allegedly common in the past.

But former rider and now race director of Ghent-Wevelgem Frank Hoste replied that this sort of practice is in the past, with the millions of pounds of sponsor money now in the sport.

Planckaert is reported to have said in Dag Allemaal magazine: "Look, if it were me in Tom's situation, I would have made a deal with Hayman. That guy was satisfied with the situation in which he's able to compete with the best riders in this race.

"Just promise him 'something' in exchange for his cooperation/assistance. Hayman must have been interested in such a deal, he would never believe that he had a shot at winning."

Watch Mathew Hayman win the 2016 Paris-Roubaix

Hoste admitted that this used to be common practice, but denied that it would have been an option at the 2016 Paris-Roubaix.

"If you went with two at the line and you finished second, you had to make that you had earned something. This is how it used to be," he told Belgian Radio 1.

"With the budgets now in this sport - between 10 and 25 million [euros] - working for another team out of the question...if anything ever leaked out, it may give a sponsor a reason to quit immediately."