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Tom Boonen is a professional cyclist from Belgium who was born October 15, 1980. Boonen finished the 2006 season ranked number 7 on the UCI ProTour.
Tom Boonen (born on October 15, 1980 in Mol, Belgium) is one of the world's best professional road bicycle racers and is the 2005 World Road Race Champion. He is considered a single-day road race specialist with a strong finishing sprint. His personality and looks, combined with his successes, also turned him into Belgium's main male sports idol of the mid-2000s.
Career overview
2002
At the start of 2002 Boonen rode for the US Postal Service team, finishing third in Paris-Roubaix after an early breakaway. Fellow Flemish rider Johan Museeuw had escaped off the front of the race to a solo victory, and team captain Hincapie crashed in a slippery section of the course leaving Boonen to ride for himself. Boonen's performance in the race compelled Museeuw - his childhood hero - to publicly declare him his natural successor.
However, Boonen was not completely happy at US Postal, claiming he did not get enough chances to ride for himself. Towards the end of the year he announced he would leave the team, despite being under contract, and joined Quick Step-Innergetic at the start of 2003.
2003
The 2003 season, however, did not go well for Boonen, who saw lacklustre performance due to fatigue. In this season Museeuw was the undisputed team leader for the spring classics campaign.
2004
The 2004 season saw Boonen rise up to the challenge to win the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, the classic race Gent-Wevelgem and the Grote Scheldeprijs. In addition, he also won two stages of the Tour de France including the prestigious final stage in Paris, just like Museeuw did years ago.
2005
2005 saw Tom Boonen ascend clearly into the history books as one of the great cyclists of his generation. Winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, and finishing second in the Omloop "Het Volk" (behind teammate Nick Nuyens), he stamped his authority on the brutal cobbled Spring Classics. In his Ronde van Vlaanderen victory Boonen was considered the strongest sprinter in the final group of riders. However, instead of waiting for the final moment, he attacked a few kilometers from the finish to the surprise of other riders in the group, and stayed away for a solo victory. One of the other riders in the peloton, Erik Dekker, afterwards declared that he was [i]"happy that he would not have to race against Boonen the next ten years, because [he] would have to race for second place"[/i]. In his Paris-Roubaix victory, he entered the Roubaix velodrome in the leading trio, and waited until the last moment before launching a sprint that saw him beat American George Hincapie and Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha.
In the Tour de France, he won the second and the third stage. In this edition, Boonen claimed the green jersey after the second stage, however, he was forced to retire from the race after stage 11, after multiple crashes. The jersey was reliquished to Norwegian Thor Hushovd, who held on for the rest of the tour, becoming the eventual winner.
On September 25 he became the twenty-first Belgian World Champion after the World Cycling Championships in Madrid. A seven-man breakaway was reeled in in the final straight by the group that he was in, before he powered home ahead of Alejandro Valverde. He is the first Belgian since Museeuw, in 1996, to don the rainbow jersey.
Tom Boonen is the first cyclist in history to win the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, and the World Cycling Championship in one and the same season. With these victories he secured second place in the overall standings of the 2005 ProTour.
Boonen currently rides for Quick.Step-Innergetic and lived in Balen (Belgium) before moving to Monaco (end 2005). This move, disguised as "an escape from intrusive fans" was probably in reality to profit from the favourable Monaco tax system.
At the end of the year Boonen won several awards: Kristallen Fiets (Crystal Bicycle), Vélo d'Or (Golden Bicycle), Trofee voor Sportverdienste (Trophy For Sporting Merit), [b]Belgian Sportsman of the Year 2005[/b] and Belgian Sports Personality of the Year.
2006
In 2006, Boonen again had an incredible start of the season (see palmares), highlighted by winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen again. After the incredible start, Boonen diminished and had a somewhat disappointing Tour of Belgium. Before the start of the 2006 Tour de France, Boonen claimed that he considered himself the strongest and smartest sprinter. However, he did not win a stage in the first week and found himself outclassed by the speed of Robbie McEwen and the clever tactics of Freire. In spite of this, Boonen was able to claim the yellow jersey for the first time in his career, but soon lost it in the first time trial to time trial specialist Sergei Honchar.
Boonen pulled out of the Tour de France during the 15th stage over 187km from Gap to l'Alpe d'Huez. According to the team manager, Boonen lost a lot of weight during the Tour and got a much needed rest period were he had to gain some weight again. An indication that Boonen is regaining his strength was the Eneco Tour of Benelux, in which he totally overclassed the other sprinters to take the victories of stage 1, 3 and 5. Boonen has stated that he indeed is getting stronger, however, in the World Cycling Championships, he was not as strong as hoped to (on a circuit that was less flat than in Madrid 2005) and lost his title to Quick Step-Innergetic teammate Paolo Bettini, finishing ninth.
