Boonen aiming for good prologue ride

By Shane Stokes in London

Tom Boonen held yellow in last year's Tour de France and with the race heading to Belgium on Monday, he wants to get the maillot jaune back this year.

To do that, he has to finish close to the winning time in the prologue and then chase bonus seconds on Sunday's stage to Canterbury. He knows that the first of these two could be a tough ask due to the distance, but said this week that he has been planning towards this.

"I think the prologue is long; one of four or five or maybe six kilometres is good for me, but eight kilometres is quite long. I will try my best, though. I did some work on my prologue, perhaps not as much as the main specialists, but I think I can do something."

The course is flat and that should favour the big Belgian. If he manages to post a good time, he will go all guns blazing in the sprints. "The day after the prologue there will be bonuses and I can try to take some time back. The next day [Monday] finishes in Gent and to be in yellow there would be great. I'll do what I can to achieve that."