Boonen gets classics campaign under way

03-02-2009 | AFP

The Belgium champion finished ahead of Eisel and Hunt.

Panama Star KUURNE, BELGIUM. Belgian star Tom Boonen claimed his first big spring classics win of the season at the Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne semi-classic here Sunday.

The 2005 world champion, who rides for Quick Step, finished ahead of Columbia sprinter Bernhard Eisel of Austria and Britain's Jeremy Hunt, who was third in a bunch sprint for the line.

At Sunday's race, held over 194km, the 194-strong field stopped to pay tribute to stricken Belgian racer Frederiek Nolf, 21, who died in his sleep at the Tour of Qatar on February 5.

A few hundred meters after the start the peloton stopped briefly outside the house of Nolf's parents in Kuurne before getting the race under way.

After finishing a lowly 10th in the first semi-classic of the season, the Circuit Het Nieuwsblad (ex-Het Volk), on Saturday, Boonen made amends in style 24 hours later after some good work in the finale by new French teammate Sylvain Chavanel. Once inside the final kilometer Boonen kept his cool and pulled ahead of Hunt to claim the win. A late surge by Eisel allowed him to finish second.