“I’ll keep my thoughts to myself”: Tom Boonen fuels Cancellara motor doping rumours (again) and claims “angry, grim” Lance Armstrong ignored him for years – but former US Postal boss tells Belgian to “shut up”

Next April, it will be 15 years since Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen’s era-defining duel at the 2010 Tour of Flanders. And the sight of Cancellara, clad in his Swiss champion’s jersey, powering away from the Belgian champ on the Muur van Geraardsbergen – and the subsequent innuendo-fuelled controversy that’s hovered over that particular race-destroying acceleration ever since – is one that Boonen has clearly found rather more difficult to shake off over the years.

Because this week, in a podcast interview in Belgium, classics legend Boonen – not for the first time – addressed the motor doping rumours which have clouded Cancellara’s 2010 Ronde win for a decade and a half, pointing out several “weird” incidents which allegedly occurred during and after the Swiss star’s victory, and admitting that “I have my thoughts about it, but I'll keep them to myself”.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Boonen criticised his former teammate Lance Armstrong, claiming that the banned Texan blanked him for six years after he left US Postal early to join Quick-Step – prompting Boonen to adopt a “f*** you, man” attitude towards Armstrong in the peloton – comments which have since led his former boss at the American team, Johan Bruyneel, to tell the Belgian to “shut up” on social media.

“Why in the world did that happen?”

Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad’s Stamcafé Koers podcast, 44-year-old Boonen, the joint-holder of the record for most victories at both Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, with four and three victories respectively, suggested that he doesn’t know “what’s true or not” concerning that infamous head-to-head duel with Fabian Cancellara at the 2010 Ronde.

That 2010 edition of the Belgian monument saw the two defining classics riders of their era, Boonen and Cancellara, clad in their respective national champion’s jerseys, go clear together with around 45km to go.

But on the then-often decisive Muur van Geraardsbergen, or Kapelmuur, with 16km to go, Cancellara – firmly planted in the saddle – simply powered away from Boonen on the steep cobbled climb, as the home hero forlornly wrestled with his bike, while the Swiss rider disappeared around the hill-top chapel, never to be seen again.

By the finish in Ninove, Cancellara was 75 seconds clear of Boonen, having secured the first of what would prove to be a record-equalling three victories at the Ronde.

And in doing so, he unleashed a wave of speculation about the source of his Kapelmuur-taming power.

A month after his Ronde win, which he followed up with another stunning solo victory at Paris-Roubaix a week later, a video titled ‘Bike with engine (doped bike) and Cancellara (Roubaix-Vlaanderen)’ was posted on YouTube by Italian Michele Bufalino.

The video, which featured former pro Davide Cassani and has since been viewed 5.4 million times, claimed that Cancellara had used a concealed motor in his bike on the way to his Flanders and Roubaix triumphs, by pointing to instances where the Swiss rider allegedly made odd hand movements near his shifter, which were followed by “unnatural accelerations” while seated.

Cancellara, for his part, described the accusations as “so stupid, I’m speechless” and jokingly insisted that the “motor is in my legs”.

However, the rumours around the classics star’s sensational spring in 2010 have persisted, especially in the wake of Femke Van den Driessche’s six-year suspension for having a concealed motor in her spare bike at the 2016 world cyclocross championships, the only instance to date of a rider being caught for motor doping at an elite event.

> A brief history of motor doping in cycling, from the pro peloton to amateur hill climbs

A year later, retired pro Phil Gaimon accused Cancellara of using a motor in his book Draft Animals, prompting the threat of a lawsuit, and a head-to-head duel, from the Swiss rider.

“I dismissed it until I heard his former teammates talk about certain events where Cancellara had his own mechanic, his bike was kept separate from everyone else’s, and he rode away from a ‘who’s who’ of dopers,” Gaimon wrote in his book of the Saxo Bank star’s 2010 wins.

“When you watch the footage, his accelerations don’t look natural at all, like he’s having trouble staying on the top of the pedals. That f***er probably did have a motor.”

And in 2018, a year after retiring from the sport himself, Boonen finally broke his silence on that most sensitive of topics.

“Did Cancellara steal the 2010 Flanders thanks to a motor? Is there any doubt?” a Belgian TV interviewer asked Boonen shortly before that year’s Paris-Roubaix.

“Yes,” Boonen replied. “But it’s not for me to say. I finished second, and it’s not the one in second who has to say the situation is not normal. It’s very difficult to prove because we do not have the bike to check. It’s too late.”

> Professional cyclist says motor doping "impossible" at top level, reacts to "crazy story" from French race as cycling film actor denies cheating at amateur event

And now, the outspoken former world champion has once again weighed in on the lingering accusations of motor doping on the Kapelmuur.

“I don’t know what's true or not either. I have my thoughts about it, but I’ll keep them to myself,” the 44-year-old told the latest episode of the Stamcafé Koers podcast.

Addressing what he described as “weird” moments during and after the 2010 Tour of Flanders, Boonen said: “At one point, before that left turn, I saw him make all the effort in the world to sit on the right side of the road.

“Then he jumped off his bike and grabbed a new one. Three seconds later he was back beside me. I thought, how weird, planning a bike change there. Why in the world did that happen? I don’t know.”

> Financial “reward” package for motor doping whistleblowers confirmed, as UCI commits to “eradicating technological fraud at the highest level”

He continued: “At the finish in Ninove, there was quite a distance between the podium and the press room and the doping control. So, everyone was always on a bike. And from there back to the buses, because they were a bit further away.

“When we came out of the stage, there was one bike missing. We [Boonen and third-place Philippe Gilbert] took our bikes, while he was struggling on foot to get through all the people.

“I didn’t think about it at the time, but then you start to think about it.

“Fabian is Fabian, a special person, but it’s not that I didn’t get along with him. I rode very nice races against him.

“But after that race I put a bit of a barrier between Fabian and myself. That’s my decision, and it may have been misinterpreted on the other side.

“Whether it’s true or not, I don’t think I suffered any harm from it then. And I have nothing to hide. If that’s the case with him, then of course it’s a different story.”

“Hey Lance”

Historic motor doping accusations weren’t the only ghosts of cycling’s past being exorcised by Boonen on the podcast – he also addressed his rocky relationship with a certain Lance Armstrong.

The Belgian turned pro with Armstrong’s US Postal team in 2001, securing a breakthrough third place at Paris-Roubaix the following year, before ripping up his contract early at the end of 2002 to join Quick-Step, where he would spend the rest of his illustrious career.

And according to Boonen, the disgraced Texan, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping in 2012 – didn’t take too kindly to the young Belgian classics prospect jumping ship from the grand tour dominating American squad.

"Honestly, he wasn’t intimidating at all back then,” Boonen said of his first encounters with Armstrong in 2001. “That year, Gianpaolo Mondini suddenly disappeared. He was caught up in a scandal and, all of a sudden, he was just gone [the Italian was sacked by US Postal after police found EPO and growth hormone in his hotel room during 2001 Giro d’Italia].

“I remember Armstrong saying, ‘It’s better without guys like that, they should send them all home’. A few years later, you look back and think, seriously?”

However, when Boonen told his US Postal teammates by email that he was leaving to join Patrick Lefevere’s Quick-Step squad for 2003, he claims Armstrong replied: “Good luck, you’ll need it”.

“That hit me hard. And I was only 20 years old, you know,” he said. “For a couple of years, he wouldn’t speak to me whenever we crossed paths in races.

“It lasted six years. By then, I thought, ‘F*** you, man’. Every race we were both in, I’d pass him and say, ‘Hey Lance,’ and he’d just stare straight ahead, angry and grim.

“I just laughed at him, and honestly, that’s the best way to make a statement.”

Boonen then noted that he was glad he transferred to Quick-Step when he did, following the later revelations of widespread doping at US Postal.

(Boonen would go on to test positive out-of-competition three times for cocaine, and survived an attempt by the Tour de France’s organisers to ban him from the 2009 race – Armstrong’s comeback Tour – fearing the image of an event that had been mired in doping controversy for almost the entire previous three years would be tarnished.)

> "Never listen to Lance Armstrong about anything": Phil Gaimon hits back at disgraced cheat's "don't give them a reason to doubt you" warning to Tadej Pogačar

“Imagine if I’d stayed two more years at US Postal,” Boonen said. “I would’ve been good enough to make the Tour de France team. And then you just get caught up in the system. It’s as simple as that.

“It wasn’t even a choice either. It was a system young riders got pulled into. At Quick-Step, they said, ‘We’re not going to do that.’

“Later, things like the blood passport and reporting your whereabouts came into the picture. I was one of the first riders to do that. But at US Postal, they were still focused on winning the Tour de France. I ended up in a completely different mindset.”

Naturally, Boonen’s comments on the culture and practices at US Postal have sparked a response from the outspoken if crumbling remnants of the American team’s camp.

Posting on Twitter in response to Boonen’s remarks about US Postal’s “system”, former team boss Johan Bruyneel – also serving a lifetime ban for his part in the squad’s doping programme – said: “Boonen should shut up! I’m going to leave it at that.”