Boonen

DEZEWEEKWETENWEOFHIJNAARDETOURMAG!BUITENLANDSE

JOWOEDE,VERONTWAARDIGINGÉMag Tom Boonen nu naar de Tour of niet? Dat was de jongste weken dé Grote Vraag. En zo komt voortdurend zijn cocaïnegebruik ter sprake. Ook in het buitenland weerklinkt kritiek op onze wielerheld, maar heeft men ook wel begrip voor hem. Wij praten met internationale gerenommeerde sportjournalisten.
SALRUIBAL,‘USATODAY’,VERENIGDESTATEN‘ENORM TELEURGESTELD
‘In de Verenigde Staten
IN TOM!’
wordt de naam Tom Boonen niet in één adem genoemd met de Tour’, zegt journalist en amateurwielrenner Sal Ruibal. ‘Als Amerikanen Tom al kennen, is het van de Ronde van Vlaanderen en Parijs-Roubaix.’
‘W‘Wat zijn cocaïnegebruik betreft ben ik categoriek: volledig fout’, aldus Ruibal. ‘Ik heb Tom enkele keren ontmoet, hij is een toffe gast, ik heb respect Roubaix en de Ronde van Vlaanvoor hem. Maar dit is alwéér een deren, én je woonde de Tour zes drugschandaal dat het wielrennen keer bij. En dit jaar? een slechte naam geeft.’ Nee, maar volgend jaar ben ik er Heb je enig begrip voor Boonen? weer bij. Ik ben me ervan bewust Ik begrijp dat Tom Boonen als dat sprinters als Tom wat extra jonge god wordt blootgesteld aan peper kunnen geven aan de Tour. allerlei verleidingen, maar coke is Maar het Amerikaanse publiek is een drug die tot totale verwoesting er niet mee bezig of Boonen er al kan leiden. Nadat hij een eerste dan niet bij is. De Amerikanen keer betrapt werd, dacht ik: ‘Oké, kennen maar één renner. dat kan gebeuren, laten we hem Lance Armstrong. nog een kans geven.’ Daarom ben Precies! En misschien Floyd Lanik nu enorm teleurgesteld in Boo-dis, maar dan alleen omdat hij de nen. Wat mij betreft is Tom ook dit Tour won op doping. Dus nee, Tom jaar niet welkom in de Tour, er heeft in Amerika geen sterrenstamoet een duidelijk statement wor-tus, net zo min als Armstrong. Die den gemaakt: cocaïne kán niet. rol is meer weggelegd voor base-Je reed zelf als amateur Parijs-ball-en footballspelers.’ ¦ JS

22
30.06.2009

The Agony and the Asphalt

By Sal Ruibal
USA TODAY
May 11, 2009

I don't know about you, but I would rather crash a NASCAR race car upside-down at 180 miles per hour than fall off my road bike at 30 miles an hour.
Carl Edwards flipped over at warp speed April 27 at Talladega and walked away with a headache and a smile.
Christian Vande Velde hit the tarmac at 30 miles an hour Monday at the Giro d'Italia cycling race and broke two ribs as well as heavily bruising his spine and pelvis. He left his race in an ambulance.
Edwards raced again the next Sunday. Vande Velde is out of the three-week Giro and he may not mend in time for the July 4 start of the Tour de France.
Does that mean Vande Velde is a wimp? As they say in NASCAR, aw hell no!

The difference is that Edwards was swathed in a cocoon of safety devices and garments that kept his body from being mangled by fatal G-forces, flames and jagged metal.
Vande Velde was protected by about a sixteenth of an inch of argyle Lycra when his body bounced off the asphalt.
The only real safety device he was wearing was his helmet. The closest thing to an air bag on a bike is a packet of GU in your rear jersey pocket.
To see what Vande Velde experienced, drive your car thirty miles an hour down the highway, open the door and fall out.
Vande Velde did that and got back up on his bike.
He didn't get too far, but he tried.
The next time you lose your patience and honk at a biker whose 25 mph pace is slowing your arrival at Burger King, think about the consequences. A fender bender for you is a life-ender for him.

Habemus Boonen, unfortunately

By Sal Ruibal
USA TODAY
May 10, 2009


Pro cycling can't seem to get out of its own way.
The beautiful Giro d'Italia started Saturday in Venice and an American-owned team with an international roster, Columbia-Highroad, won the opening team time trial. Astana, a Kazakhstan-owned team (for now) with a lot of big-name Americans on its roster, was third.
But away from the canals and gondolas, cycling was sinking faster than Venice: Classics king Tom Boonen had been suspended by his Quick-Step team after testing positive for cocaine.
Belgian Boonen is cycling's reigning rock star: handsome, fast and careless with the gifts and opportunities he's been given.
In 2005, after he'd left Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team, Boonen won the world championships, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.
He was so well-regarded in Belgium that fans lined race courses with signs that read "Habemus Boonen," a spin on "Habemus Papam", the Latin phrase used to signal the Roman Catholic faithful that a new Pope has been selected.
Quick-Step had great plans for Boonen that went beyond the one-day classics. His speed and power made him a threat in both sprint stages and breakaways, a perfect combination for winning the Tour de France green jersey that goes to the overall points leader.
But on May 26, 2008, he tested positive for cocaine. That drug is considered a recreational drug by sports doping agencies, so he didn't have a positive for a performance enhancing drug.
He denied using it and Belgian courts gave him a pass, but the Tour de France would not allow him to race.
Not quite a year later, the pampered prince has tested positive for cocaine again and he's denying it again and he'll be locked out of the Tour de France again. Thanks goodness he's not in the Giro.
Boonen has had great sponsors that have given him everything he could want or need as a cyclist. Quick-Step built a team of tough rouleurs to boost him through the cobblestone races and set him up for sprints. American bike-maker Specialized has spent a fortune making some of the world's most high-tech bicycles, custom-fit to his body and riding style.
I love Flanders and the racing there is, in my eyes, the most beautiful in the world.
But It is time for the rabid Belgian cycling fans to rise up and demand an end to that nation's history of coddling its drug-using cycling stars. From Johan Museeuw to Frank Vandebrouke and now Tom Boonen, the Liars of Flanders have been exposed as pumped-up pussycats who have no repect for the integrity of the sport.
Habemus Jerks.

The Glory of Belgian Cycling

The purpose of this blog is to celebrate Belgian cycling in all of its forms, from the big Classic races to local kermiss races to touring the beautiful Flemish countryside. Under construction now, but I will be expanding soon.