“I completely forgot that I had celebrated too early myself” - Tom Boonen recalls his mistake at the 2008 Scheldeprijs after Lorena Wiebes’ mishap at the Amstel Gold Race

At the Amstel Gold Race last weekend, Lorena Wiebes added her name to the list of riders who have cost themselves a victory by celebrating too early, as she sat up and allowed Marianne Vos to pip her on the line.

Many famous names have done it in the past at some of the biggest races on the calendar, such as Erik Zabel at Milano-Sanremo in 2004 and Wout van Aert on stage 3 of the 2022 Critérium du Dauphiné.

Another famous example was when Tom Boonen lost the 2008 Scheldeprijs after he celebrated too early and a young Mark Cavendish ducked underneath him to snatch away the win to take back-to-back victories at the sprinters’ Classic after he had won the year before.

Boonen was reminded of his mishap last Sunday, which he had apparently erased from his memory, as he said in an interview with Sporza that “they told me about it this week and I completely forgot that I had celebrated too early myself”.

On how the sprint finish played out on that day over sixteen years ago, Boonen said “I hadn't actually seen Cavendish. When I started sprinting, Cav was tucked into my back pocket. In the end I put my hands in the air only three metres before the finish. That’s not that early. Cavendish hit my rising arm, forcing me to lean on his shoulder to keep my balance. He almost ran me over”.

However, Boonen did recall a funny moment on the podium afterwards though, as he said “when Cavendish was spraying champagne, he fell on stage. Then everything was back in balance”.

He then explained why Wiebes opened the door for Vos to come through in the sprint instead of staying on the barriers, as he stated that “at the finish you see a wall of photographers on both sides. A rider wants to get to that safe middle ground as quickly as possible. Riding next to the barriers and closing the door is against human nature. People always want to take the safe route”.