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Even though he stated last May that 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:he might never ride the Tour🍷 de France again, Tom Boonen has had a change of heart  and now wants to be at the start🅰 in 2014.

“I am actually looking forward to it,” the Belgian rider told Het Laatste Nieuws, revealing he mis📖ses th🀅e unique atmopshere of the Tour de France.

The fifth stage of the 2014 Tour de France, that includ🧸es sections of cobbles in the north of France, captured Boonen's attention. He is a four-times winner of Paris-Roubaix and three-time Tour of Flan🌸ders winner. He naturally feels that the stage should suit him well.

“The stage to Arenberg is something I am really looking forwa🐬rd to,” he said.

“I was actual꧑ly starting to miss the Tour. Winning is contagious and my heart bled. I missed the atmosphere o🐠f the team: fighting together for that one goal.”

Boonen last raced the Tour de France in 2011. He 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:abandoned during the seventh stage to Châteauroux because of injuries sustained in a crash on stage 5. The Omega Pharma-Quick S♏tep rider last finished the Tour de France in 2007 when he 🦩won the sixth and the twelfth stage plus the green points jersey in Paris.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step had a successful Tour de France this year with two stage wins by Mark Cavendish, one for Matteo Trentin and oꦗne for Tony Martin.

Boone🐲n indicated before this year’s Tour de France that he was no longer interested in riding the the biggest race in the sport. He doesn’t like the media ꦕfrenzy, the pressure to win and the fierce competition amongst riders.

"If a rider fears a three-week event like the Tour de France, you shouldn't forcꦰe him," Omega Pharma-Quick Step team manager Patrick Lefevere said in May. "I would have loved to have him at the start in Corsica, of course. For publicity value, it would have been g🔴reat but things are as they are."

Boonen, a former yellow jersey wearer🔯 and winner of six stages, now has Mark Cavendish on the team to divert the media attent☂ion.

“The media won’t ask me anymore how many stages I plan to win or if I am going for the green jersey,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws.

“We have Mark Cavendish for that now. The cobbled stage to Arenberg might be something for me. I am actually looking forward to being in t🦂he Tour de France again.” 

Boonen will have to earn his place in the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team for the Tour de France. The competition within the team for the nine places on the Tour sꦛ𒐪quad will be fierce, with key domestiques as important as team leaders.

With Mark Renshaw returning to pilot Mark Cavendish in the sprints and new recruits Rigoberto Urán, Thomas de Gendt and Jan Bakelants all contenders for the oveღrall classification, Omega Pharma-Quick Step will have to work out whaไt role Boonen can play.