Boonen rides World Course

Tom Boonen at Milan San Remo

After taking part in the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race and before Milan San Remo, Quickstep's Tom Boonen tested out the Varese World Road Race Championship course, set for Sunday, 28th September.

Boonen was accompanied by Italian champion Giovanni Visconti and by a true-blue Azzurro, Andrea Tonti.

Unfortunately Paolo Bettini, the reigning world champion and team-mate of the Belgian former champion, was unable to take part in this “voyage of discovery” due to a slight health problem – luckily he already knows the route.

"It’s a great route" said Boonen, "because it’s really windy and ideal for speed freaks like me or Freire and even for riders like Di Luca or Bettini. This World Championship is wide open, which makes it all the more interesting and stressful as well. The course feature lots of bends and you have to tackle the climbs almost from a standstill. This means that the riders will need to maintain leading positions to have any chance at success. This particular aspect makes it completely different from Madrid, where I won, and also from Salzburg and Stuttgart where my mate Bettini won."

Miss World
Later the Varese organisers revealed the 'Varese 2008:Beauty Contest'

The contest begins on 3rd May in Vittuone, in the province of Milan, and finishes on 20th September in Varese’s Cycling Stadium, where the six winners will be announced. The six winners will take part in the customary ceremonies for the various races during the World Championships. Numerous stages of the contest will be held in different parts of Italy, from Piedmont to Campania and even in Switzerland. Entering Varese 2008 Miss Worlds is free and the aspiring “Misses” can sign up to enter the contest at the web site of the Dimensione Moda agency - www.dimensione-moda.it/