Gallery: Boonen joins illustrious company in the "100 Club"

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It's been a long time coming, and perhaps a little overdue, but Tom Boonen finally broke through for his 100th victory in Paris-Nice on Monday to write himself into the history books alongside the esteemed names of Eddy Merckx, Sean Kelly and Alessandro Petacchi, among others.

Having earned the moniker 'Tornado Tom' when he seemed invincible in the early and mid 2000s, it's a sign of the strength of the next generation of sprinters in Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol), Mark Cavendish (Sky) and more recently Andrea Guardini (Farnese-Vini) that things had somewhat stalled for the big Belgian in recent years.

Fittingly however, he has made the milestone at a time when he seems back to his devastating best. Cyclingnews presents a photo montage of the Belgian's career victories to date, along with some of the elite company he joins in the '100 Club'.

To put Boonen's achievement in perspective, Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong, Fausto Coppi, Djamolidine Abduzhaparov have all had less than 100 professional wins.

Boonen's key victories include a world road race title in 2005, two Tours of Flanders, three Paris-Roubaix, two wins at Gent-Wevelgem, as well as six stages of the Tour de France.