Tom Boonen, the former world champion and classics legend, believes there will be disharmony in Belgium's men's team for the road race at the World Championships this weekend as the mix of riders selected is wrong.
Boonen believes that, given who the big stars on the team are, they will not be able to get through the race - or even the build-up - without clashes of objectives; wanting to ride for their own chances rather than putting a team mate first.
He believed having Wout van Aert, Japser Philipsen and Remco Evenepoel on the same team was a mistake that had come about because the selectors were weak and he suspected the biggest clash would be between Van Aert and Philipsen.
“It is a rewards-based selection,” Boonen said of the selectors picking team members to reward them for their season rather than to create a winning team behind a clear leader. “No decisions have been made. I would never have taken Jasper and Wout to this World Championships. Never.
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"Even if they both deserve it, it's not about that. The job of a selector is to eliminate the conflicts that are going to be - and take it from me, there will be (conflicts) - before the race. That will happen because you take two riders with the same profile to ride a final. It is inevitable that at some point something will not be comfortable for one of those two.”
Speaking to Wielerclub Wattage, Boonen added he understood why the team selectors would want to pick Philipsen, after he had been so dominant in the sprints in the Tour de France, winning four stages and the points jersey.
“I really wish him well, but you cannot go to a World Championships with two sprinters. That has happened in the past and it never works out. There is a certain favor factor, but that is very rarely present with sprinters. You want to sprint yourself."
Jan Bakelants, who retired last year but is a friend of van Aert's and still trains with him, said Evenepoel was now the best in the team, and the defending champion. As a result, he would have to get free reign over the preferences of Philipsen and Van Aert.
“Wout is caught between two stools,” Bakelants said. “He now has to attack the course earlier and move forward, but I find that disrespectful to Remco. He is the outgoing world champion after all. Remco is no longer a rider you say to: 'from lap five to three, that's your zone'. Remco is the best Belgian rider. If he wants to wait and go then on the last lap, no one can argue with that.”
