Tom Boonen has said "nobody cares" if Wout van Aert wins 20 cyclocross races in a season, adding the years were now ticking down for him. He believed the Jumbo Visma rider had to win classics as they were the only thing that would enhance his reputation and palmares.
Boonen, who won the Worlds and claimed four Paris-Roubaix wins and three Tour of Flanders victories, also believed Patrick Lefevere's Soudal-QuickStep no longer had the riders it needed to beat Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and the other major one-day racers. He added Julian Alaphilippe was the only one who could put it up to the others, and even he needed to be on a vey good day to win.
Speaking about the transfer of Paris-Roubaix winner Dylan van Baarle from Ineos Grenadiers to become a team mate of Van Aert's at Jumbo Visma, Boonen believed van Baarle's arrival will take big wins away from Van Aert.
Advertisement
"At Jumbo they see that starting with more than one team leader offers extra possibilities," Boonen said. "It will take away victories from Van Aert. The place where Van Baarle can help him is also the place where he can win races himself. Dylan will be used for the last time up the Kwaremont (at Tour of Flanders). But check out how many times the winning group has ridden away there. Van Baarle knows that, which is why he went to Jumbo.”
Related News
Boonen added "something happened" to Van Aert every time he raced Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and it came down to a man-on-man battle. He believed Van der Poel always seemed to get the better of him, adding the Dutch rider didn't need to be the best ride on the day to win, but Van Aert did.
"In a certain way, Van der Poel can make Wout that youngster of ten years ago," Boonen said of Van der Poel being able to impose himself and Van Aert being dictated to in the manner the race unfolded. "At the World Cyclocross Championships, Mathieu made an incredible effort twice, so hard that he almost had to throw up. Then you saw Wout collapse."
Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad, Boonen said he did not want to disrespect Van Aert as he was in "incredible rider" who had won races in "phenomenal ways". However, he strongly suggested Van Aert was focusing too much on cyclocross, where he believed winning was of little consequence.
"Wout will be 29 years old (this year)," Boonen said, adding he must now win some classics if he wants to be remembered as a truly great rider. "The time has come, especially after the winter he has now had. The level he has achieved is unseen, to the extent that I sometimes wonder what those (cyclorcross) riders are doing racing so hard so early in the year.
"To put it bluntly: he can win twenty cyclocross races, nobody cares . He has to win classics. I myself hated it when my season was reduced to that, but he is so good that only classics really add something at the moment. You can win fifteen races in a year, if there is no classic, it is not enough.”
