There should not yet be a huge decline in Boonen’s ability. He’s still 28 (turns 29 in October) so physically he should still be in command of all the physical strength that he had 3-4 years ago.

Actually he should be stronger- and that gets to the point I am trying to make. Emotionally he’s just not as hungry and I say that is what is causing the decline in victories. His MSR prep and race was an out and out debacle- something that Boonen Apologists on this tread are conviently ignoring. He may say he wants to win a race, but his actions say otherwise. And now he’s doing the same prep for Flanders that he did for MSR. I think his result in Flander will look stronger than MSR but that will be more a function that MSR is a more wide open race- more people can win it than Flanders- than because Boonen is better prepared.

Again- he no more needs to conserve his energy now than he did 3 or 4 years ago. He no more needs to pick and choose his races than he did 3 or 4 years ago. That people are saying he does need to be more careful are not admitting that at age 28 most every athlete is at their peak in physical prowess.

Physically, on paper, Boonen can ride every other rider into he ground at Flanders and Roubaix, and if any manage to stay with him to the end, he should beat them in a sprint. Notice that is exactly what he did last year at Roubaix because he really really wanted the win because he wasn’t in the final selection at Flanders— but he didn’t at Flanders where he was more complacent, letting his teammates carry the workload, hoping against hope that his group would all get back together. It took losing at Flanders to finally wake him up.

Possibly losing E3 in a sprint to his former teammate will wake him up. If so I’d love it. But guaranteed that losing sprint of Boonen’s has alerted every serious cobbles sprinter that Boonen can be dragged to the line and still be beaten- something that hasn’t happened before. You know that Pozzato believes this. I’m sure the likes of Hushovd and Haussler believe it too. The rules have changed in cobbles races.

And then pack it up at the end. So maybe he is being more selective.

So here’s a challenge. If you are Boonen do you look to win the same races again and again, seriously who would bet against an in form Boonen in PR or Flanders?; or do you set yourself a goal like winning each of the classics, something that he might be capable of doing.

Which would history view more favourably, a combined 8-10 Paris-Roubaix/Flanders wins, or winning every one of the one day classics?