Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Boonen has entered this season like Pacman eating up wins like they were pellets and leaving the chasing peloton looking like ghosts. When Boonen rides, you can almost hear the wonka-wonka sound as he is approaching yet another win.

The Flanders Hype Machine is looking at Belgian homeboy Tom Boonen to take the spoils again this year. Even Bicirace has cast aside all of the Italian favorites and jumped on the Boonen bandwagon (Actually their Italian pick is one I agree with, Alessandro Ballan, read the restof the story). But who would really dare to pick against Boonen? He has everything going for him at the moment including a win at the warmup GP E3 last Sunday.

This week, Boonen has been very quiet as he switches his skill from flat land super sprinter to cobble riding steep-hill grinding Classics man. The Three Days of De Pain are more of a survival test that a prep race for the Tour of Flanders. The many crashes this week show that De Pain should be the name of the race and not de Panne.

The weather for Belgium on Sunday is calling for epic Classics weather with temps in the 50s, strong possibility of rain and strong winds. Wet cobbled 20% gradient climbs will test the toughest riders, and it will not matter much if you are a heavy favorite or an no name rider.

Velochimp’s choice for the win this year will be the young Italian rider Alessandro Ballan of Lampre. I felt for Ballan when he made the decisive break on the Poggio during Milan San Remo. The break had all of the important names to make it stick to the end, but was hampered by team orders that Pozzato was faithfully following untilt the last moment.

Then last weekend Ballan was beaten handily in a two up sprint by the super sprinter Boonen himself in the GP E3. These near misses show that luck was not on his side at the right times, but he is in very good form at the moment.

Ballan was the only one to follow Boonen in the 20% gradient climb up the Paterberg.

“I’d never climbed so fast up the last 80 metres of the Paterberg,” Boonen told Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure. “That’s because Ballan is explosive in the climbs as he proved in Sanremo. He can do it all, climb, sprint, time trial, he’s a mini-Boonen!”

Eurosport

Last year Ballan placed 6th in Flanders in a surprise result. This time, if luck helps him get a good position and no mechanicals, the Italian Classics star should be able to get out on his own at the end without worrying about a final sprint.