Tom Boonen blames route design for Jasper Philipsen's Nokere crash: "A long straight finish with a descent is the most dangerous thing there is"
Cycling
The new finish of Nokere Koerse was supposed to improve safety. But a fall with Jasper Philipsen had the opposite effect. Tom Boonen explains knows why this outcome was almost inevitable.
"Every finish has its pros and cons. But the new finish of Nokere Koerse is certainly not safer than the previous finish. A long straight finish with a descent is the most dangerous thing there is," Boonen opens his argument at Wielerclub Wattage podcast.
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While he doesn't want to entice organisers to put dangerous turns in final phases of the race, however a downhill run-in doesn't seem to cut it for him either: "On a road with 3 or 4 bends, the peloton is pulled into a ribbon and the sprinters are at the front. But now you get a wave effect."
Boonen explains the situation with a physics lesson: "The riders now came from a descent before they had to go uphill. So the riders at the back had already been freewheeling for 300 or 400 meters and wanted to get to the front, while the riders at the front were destroying themselves uphill. The result was that the riders at the front fell through and the riders at the back came to the front. And there wasn't much room for that." A heavy crash was the result.
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- exactly, he had an amazing season, but with these overstatements they don‘t do him good.Ketterechts08-11-2026
- More to the point, it isn't his remaining goal.Renz08-11-2026
- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
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