Just run it past me again, Belgian Cokehead Boonen replaces Aussie Davis

[beroepsrenner]

I have to agree. I thought including Boonen over Davis was a good choice before the TdF started, but this was obviously wrong. Davis would have been contesting the sprints much better than Boonen has to date, especially with his record this year to date.

In regards to sprints v classics, I would imagine the training is different. The classics requiring sustained power and sprints requiring high top end speed for short bursts. Wasn't Boonen more of a lead train kind of sprinter? I forget, but if so, the team have also failed him because they haven't been in the mix with Columbia-HTC, Garmin, Cervelo Test Team or Milram trains.

Not sure what quicksteps game plan is in the current tour but whatever it is its failing.

Boonen is a power rider possessing a good balance of speed and endurance, ideally suited to the cobbled classics but has proven in past tours that he is capable of matching it with the best sprinters. Training is tailored to your race schedule which means to be able to recover day after day for GTs you need an enormous amount of miles in your legs. This would be achieved thru carefully selected races and long training rides and has to be matched with plenty of rest and good nutricien. It is now quite obvious that sitting in belgian cafes late at night drinking beer and snorting coke does not fit into the schedule. Tom is blessed with enormous talent but a truly dedicated athlete does not carry on that way, at least not during the season.