Earlier today, Tom Boonen spoke at a press conference, held at the McLaren showroom in Milan. Guests of honor included MotoGP pilot Ben Spies, cycling rider Fabrizio Macchi and Formula 1 pilot Jarno Trulli. Below are some quotes from the conference.
"Specialized Venge McLaren is the fastest I've ridden, that's the main thing," Boonen said. "It saves you a lot of energy. It saves you about 25 watts which is pretty huge, especially on long stages like Milan-San Remo. Seven hours on the bike, if you save as much energy as possible it will give you extra speed on the finish. The characters of the bike is — it's very strong on the bottom bracket. It's a perfect bike for me. I like it."
"My ideal scenario is crossing the finish line first," Boonen said about Milan-San Remo. "The way I'd like to do it is not really important. I've been there only a few times. Milan-San Remo is always a nervous race which ends up in a field sprint every time. But the ideal scenario is when you win. Everything can go right and everything can go wrong. It's a race where you really need to be anxious of the details all day long. The details make the difference in the end. I hope I have the experience now to do a good result. I hope now I will have the luck a little bit on my side, then I won't be very far from victory."
"The last two Milan-Sam Remos have been very hard races," Boonen said. "They've been sprints but with a really elite group. Maybe this year the weather will be better, but I think maybe it can also be bad weather in San Remo. I saw a few forecasts say that maybe we'll have some rain at the end. At the end it's a hard race, even if you go to the line with 70 guys it will still be one of the strongest guys that will win."
"I was feeling very good at Paris-Nice," Boonen said. "Everything is on schedule, but to say an exact percentage of how good I am is almost impossible. But after Paris-Nice the recovery really helps you. It's not the racing, it's the recovery. I had a good week now and I hope to have a good result Saturday, and then it's off to Belgium for the cobbled Classics."
Photo credit: Christopher Keiser
