Omega Pharma and the Tour: Boonen on the bench

To all Tom Boonen fans, we have a special message brought to you by those in charge over at Omega Pharma–QuickStep; there will be no need to take your whitewash to l’Alpe d’Huez this year.

There’ll be no need to practice the ‘Tomeke! Tomeke! Tomeke!’ chants. No need for the ladies to get ready with the swoon as the swashbuckling Conquerer of the Classics (sometimes, i.e. when a certain Big Swiss Cheese isn’t on the scene) whizzes by in that fetching OP-QS kit.

Why?

Because Boonen is on the bench. Playing left-right-out. On the team bus. Parked in a lay-by in the low lands. All glum, back in old Belgium, by gum.

A serious infection to an elbow wound in January almost spelt disaster for Belgium’s poster boy. “An elbow infection?” I hear you ask.

Sounds innocuous enough but, according to Tom, it was anything but. At the time he had this to say of the ordeal:

“I’m happy… I’ve still got my arm. That’s a bit more important than having good form,” he said, with a very overplayed nod and a wink and a little chuckle to himself.



”That’s what they told me, eight hours. If it hits the bone, the arm was gone and it was only a few millimetres from the bone. On the Friday there was nothing but then on Sunday they told me that if I hadn’t done anything, Monday would have been too late.”


Boonen forged something of a return with first at Heistse Pijl and seventh at E3 Harelbeke but then crashed at Gent-Wevelgem (try saying that three times after three Belgian beers) and again at the Tour of Flanders.

By the time Paris-Roubaix rolled around he’d been diagnosed with a broken rib.

So, 2013 a bit of a disaster? Yes, undeniably, not only for Tomeke but also, crucially, for us. For when, Saint Eddy, are we going to get the Classics showdown we’ve all been salivating for?

Boonen was rocking in March, blasting in April, therefore Cancellara must be crook.

The big Swiss in the groove early season, which must mean the sick bed for Tom.

It’s as if the universe is conspiring against us. Sneaky universe.

One is in the gilded theatre, hitting all the high notes and dining on caviar and champers at the buffet as the other tugs at his forelock by the back entrance, sniffing out the scraps.

Or is it kind of like The Stones and The Beatles, or – if you’re under 35 and ill-educated, Oasis and Blur? Giving each other a bell and making sure the two number ones won’t clash?

Check out Boonen’s palmares for 2012. It is absolutely stellar.

1st National Road Race
1st Tour of Qatar
1st Paris-Roubaix
1st Tour of Flanders
1st Gent-Wevelgem
1st World Team Time Trial Championships

Then look at Cancellara’s. Yellow at the first week of the Tour and the prologue win, won Strade Bianche, second at Milan-San Remo and then, well, the tumbleweeds blew. Cobwebs grew. There was, unmistakably, a whiff of mildew.

Then there was 2013. For Boonen, it was a nightmare. For Fabian, a place at the table of the gods.

1st E3 Harbeke
1st Tour of Flanders
1st Paris-Roubaix

And he hasn’t finished yet.

Either way, it is annoying. And while when anyone is injured you have to wish them all the best, it is very frustrating.

“Oh come on Boonen/Cancellara! Stay upright!” you almost want to shout at the screen.

Boonen skipped the 2012 Tour to concentrate on the Olympics, and he is going to miss this one too because of injury, or rather the effects of his previous injuries/ The narrative so far suggests that is probably the reason.

But could it be because he can’t fit into a Mark Cavendish-centered OP-QS team? The gossip-lover in me wants that to be a maybe.

Cav (who has a separate page for his palmares on Wikipedia, because it’s that massive) won in Qatar this year, where Boonen usually does so well.

Cavendish won five stages at the Giro, and the points Jersey. He won the GC, the points and four stages in Qatar. And then some more, here and there.

Have team management glimpsed the future? Is it conceivable for this team to be without Boonen?

Who knows. But, I do know this: the irreplaceable suddenly becomes less so when someone else starts winning. Or, to borrow a baseball term that better suits what Cav brings: when someone starts knocking the skin off the ball and hoisting it into the car park, smashing the crap out of the owner’s windscreen.

Boonen’s been the Big Dog on his teams for so long, there is no doubt he will be at the very least envious of the ravenous Englishman. And who is to say that Cav won’t go on to win another five in France, the green jersey and the final day in Paris?

Not me, that much I do know.

But is the Belgian team putting too much emphasis on this fiery little rocket from the Isle of Man?

They’ve been without a real GC contender for so long now they probably aren’t even bothered. But one thing is sure – Cavendish delivers in the grand Tours, and while it might not be yellow, he brings far more to the table than Boonen is now capable of.

Tom was ‘just’ a sprinter in his youth, but the loss of top-end speed meant adaptation was necessary, and how well he adapted.

There’s no doubt he is one of the greatest one day riders of all time and possibly the best of his generation, but there is very much a sense that there is a new kid on the block. And while he’s not a kid and not really new, he just happens to be wearing the same kit.

The end for Tom at Omega?

Stranger things have happened.