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BRUSSELS, Feb 29, 2008 (AFP) - Belgium’s former world champion Tom Boonen has opted to race at the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race instead of Paris-Nice, his Quick Step team said Friday.
Boonen, a one-day specialist who would use either race as preparation for the upcoming classics season, says the profile of the French ‘Race to the Sun’is harder this year than usual.   Speaking to Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, his team manager Patrick Lefevere explained: “On paper, there’s only one stage that is likely to finish in a bunch sprint, so Tom has changed his mind.”
Tirreno-Adriatico is dubbed the “Race of the Two Seas’, the race meandering from the Mediterranean on the west coast of Italy to the Adriatic on the east.  One of Boonen’s early season aims will be the Milan-San Remo one-day classic, held on the third weekend in March. All previous eight winners of the race known as ‘La Primavera’ had raced in the Italian stage race.