Originally Posted by waltergodefroot
Unlike some other riders, Boonen doesn't have a history for tactics like switching sides of the road in the middle of a sprint. Granted, this was early in his career, but he still doesn't show those types of inclinations. Take his sprint in 05 MSR. He could have quite possible have bullied his way to the front if he had ridden a bit more aggressively, but he is not a McEwen/Baffi/Abdoujaparov type sprinter.
I think the facts suggest that Boonen's mechanical led to his veering. The other riders all just kept their mouths shut even though a couple got beat up pretty bad in the ensuing crash, no one was relegated, Kirsipuu was silent, and you know they wouldn't have been quiet if Boonen had been riding recklessly. The officials certainly aren't going to pick favorites when judging reckless riding, especially when there is a crash. Ask Paolo Bettini, and he wasn't even riding recklessly.
Anyway, none of this is worth calling names over.
All MSR 05 showed was that Boonen had really poor positioning, what else could you prove from that? That whole arguement at best is specious. Maybe we saw differant races? Maybe you saw the directors cut complete with hyperbole.
But seriously, my take after viewing the footage from this stage in Overcoming, is that it looks like Boonen has already chosen to make a rather dramatic line change (seems a skill obtained only by the leaders of Quickstep
) before he starts worrying about his mechanical. Ok its a matter of seconds but thats still the way it looks to me.
It might be getting harder to believe everything Boonens says these days. Not trying to hang him out to dry, i enjoy watching him race but after reading his post race comments about this years MSR, he seems to be putting together quite an extensive list of excuses. Cant ever seem to get in his 11, mechanicals, holding back in the sprint, then something that should be more worrying, refering to himself in the 3rd person more. All the usual sprinters talk really, cept somse other sprinters arent afforded the same benefit of the doubt.