Famous quotes by Tom Boonen:
"[After yesterday's crash in the Tour de Rijke, Quick.Step's Tom Boonen managed to train for around 100 kilometres on Sunday morning.] This morning I woke up a little bit worried about the potential consequences of yesterday's fall during the G.P. De Rijke, where I hurt my knee, ... Fortunately the knee was not swollen. When I started to ride my bike, I understood that the problem was not serious as I feared. I trained for around 100 kilometres without problems, forcing and doing some tests on the knee. Tomorrow I will do a long training ride and then Wednesday, as scheduled, I will fly to Granada. In the Tour de France I was unlucky, yesterday not."
"The world's is the only race that matter for me. My goal here at the Vuelta is sharpen my fitness. If I win a stage, great, but the most important thing at the Vuelta is to leave stronger than I came."
"I'm lacking a little competition, but the knee is fine. It doesn't hurt and it's good enough to start the Vuelta and begin my preparations for the world's."
"The financial side of it is pleasant of course, but that is not the main reason for me leaving my parental home in Balen. I would like to lead a bit of a normal life again. It will be nice to walk down the street without people staring at me. Every day there's a dozen of interested fans at my front door; it's getting too much. I'm getting a bit fed up with having to tell the same story twenty times a day to people I don't know at all, or having to listen to their stories. Monaco will be a better place for me to train also, in winter I often don't have the courage to go out in the bad weather, in the South training will be easier."
"I'm not a 100 percent satisfied, but let's say 98 percent,"
"It's OK that the others are ahead of me here. It doesn't worry me. I really didn't try in this Vuelta, ... I'm only here to prepare for the world championships. That's the only thing that matters to me right now."
"It's okay that the others are ahead of me here. It doesn't worry me. I really didn't try in this Vuelta. I only came to the Vuelta to recuperate my fitness and I leave here at about 80 percent fitness. If I was here at top fitness I might not have reached the peak at the world's. At Madrid, I want to be 110 percent fitness and I didn't want to peak too early."
"(Alejandro) Valverde is going to drop some bombs. And if it ends up finishing in a bunch sprint I'm not sure Petacchi will get his Italian train going."
"(Alejandro) Valverde is going to drop some bombs. And if it ends up finishing in a bunch sprint I'm not sure Petacchi will get his Italian train going,"
"The Belgian riders did everything for me, ... I didn't have to work hard until the end. At the finish, Mario Aerts gave me perfect position."
