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news
Tom Boonen, Het Volk 2007 © DarkSideX [Wiki Commons]Tom Boonen wins in court... and Qatar
Charges against Cyclist Tom Boonen relating to a positive test for cocaine use were today dropped by a Belgian court on the basis that he had “been punished enough”. The Quick-Step rider reacted to the news by winning tuesday's stage of the Tour of Qatar, landing himself the leader's jersey in the race.
Boonen landed in trouble after an out of competition doping control last June confirmed cocaine use – the coke bust cost Boonen his place in the 2008 Tour de France. The court decided his exclusion from the Tour was a big enough penalty. Boonen undoubtedly lost out financially by not being at the Tour and by being forced to ride in lesser races during the season.
As a result of the failed dope test he faced a criminal investigation for cocaine possession which can carry a jail term in Belgium and also a large fine. The rider is a massive star in Belgium – where he has been compared to the cycling equivalent of David Beckham, and given his status the outcome of the case was not a surprise.
When the dope test was first made public Boonen apologised to fans but has never admitted taking cocaine – he has never denied it either.
Boonen is currently riding the Tour of Qatar with his Quick-Step team. Talking to the Associated Press after the court gave out its verdict Quick-Step directeur sportif, Patrick Lefevere said: "Tom has been punished in public and financially. We hope it has been a lesson for him,"
road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.
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7 comments
just in case he was a megastar and I made myself look like a plum; spell check always changes my surname (Hartwell)to Hurtle, I might deedpoll my name to Simon Hurtle to fit in better....
Once went through a spellcheck and the first alternative offered was 'Fart'.
I don't mourn too much when Micorsoft Word did for WordPerfect back in the early Nineties.
WordPerfect? Pah. Newbie. WordStar was the one true word processor...
Never had a problem with Wordstar "Farmhouse" was as offensive as it got…
Protext on the Amstrad CPC6128. Now THAT was a word processor. [leans back, smokes pipe, fondly remembers the good old days of chuckie egg and head over heels]
I have to say that I thought that Tom Boonen was a bigger star than even David Beckham, but to be bigger than David Buckram is really quite an achievement!
don't think he's as big as Buckram