The legendary Tom Boonen confirms the drama he experienced after his retirement: “Cycling turned me into someone I didn’t want to be. They take you out of the real world. I needed help”

It is often said that elite athletes usually live in a world that can distance them from real life and that when they leave professionalism they have a hard time adapting to the new life. There have been many examples in this regard, the last of them has been expressed by the Belgian cycling legend Tom Boonen.

He mol corridor He was in his time one of the best classic cyclists, as evidenced by his resume, in which his three victories in the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurnehis four in the E3 Harelbeke, his three in the Ghent-Wevelgemhis three in the Tour of Flanders or the four wounds in the ‘Hell of the North’ of Paris-Roubaix.

In fact, the Paris-Roubaix 2017 It was his last race, with which he put an end to a brilliant career that began in 2000 in the ranks of the US Postal Service.

Years in which he became a champion and in which he became a legend of the peloton and a reference for the fans. But everything changed when he decided to get out of life. It was not easy for him to get used to his new life, as he has now acknowledged on VTM’s ‘Happy Hour’ program.

Boonen acknowledges that “I spent 16 or 17 years in a world that is not real, I gave everything I had” and when it was over “I needed time to recover”, since “cycling had turned me into someone I was not, someone I did not want to be.”

And as the four-time winner of the Paris-Roubaix“it’s an extreme life, with incredible ups and downs. They take you out of the real world and put you in the world of cycling. You become a hero to many people,” to the point that he needed professional help. “I ended up going 25 to 30 times. In the end you can see the results. It really helps and I recommend it to anyone.”