Tom Boonen, who is clearly the winningest racer in the history of the Tour of Qatar, will eschew taking part in a race that has more or less been his own personal stomping ground in 2011.
The Belgian superstar is just returning from most of a season lost to knee problems, and wants to get his 2011 season underway as soon as possible. And when it comes to as early as possible, there's not much earlier than mid-January's Tour Down Under in Australia.
Biciciclismo reports that the three-time Paris-Roubaix winner and two-time Tour of Flanders champion will not take part in the Tour of Qatar for the first time in seven years, in favor of making his season debut in Australia. Boonen has taken the overall title at the Tour of Qatar three times along with sixteen stage wins.
Following a strong, but not spectacular spring season, Boonen's season took a turn for the worse with a crash at the Tour of California in May, which ended up being the ruin of his season. Boonen struggled along after that, but eventually underwent surgery on his knee following the Tour of Switzerland in June. Many comeback dates were talked about, but it wasn't until the Circuit Franco-Belge at the end of the season, that the 2009 Belgian champion could return to competition. Boonen quickly followed Franco-Belge with participation at Paris-Tours, but he was nowhere near the force that he had been at the French Classic that he had been the year before when he came up just short to rampaging Philippe Gilbert.
The initial indications were of a fully-recovered Boonen though, so Boonen will head into the winter with a healthy body and a lot of motivation. He won't have to wait too terribly long before returning to racing either. The cobbled specialist and former Green Jersey winner will be competing in three months.
If Boonen gets in a solid winter without any problems, he could definitely head to Australian in January as one of the contenders for the overall victory and, surely, a stage win or two. For the native of Mol, getting into his Qatar condition and winning early in 2011 is the big motivation.