I was a little perturbed at Quick Step’s Big Tom Boonen for bailing out on the hilly, final stage of the Tour of California.

True, it was unlikely to be a sprint finish, his forte, and Columbia-High Road’s Mark Cavendish was safely ensconced in the race’s sprinter’s jersey and  teammate Michael Barry’s slipstream in making it over the big mountain passes while the race leaders made life difficult for Levi Leipheimer in the yellow jersey.

But … you’d like to see one of the biggest names in the world suffer with the rest of the cats in the grupetto than to just bail out.

Then, again, the defending Paris-Roubaix winner has his sights set on the sprint classics, and the classic season gets underway Saturday with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (the former Het Volk) and continues Sunday with Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.

Defending champ Philippe Gilbert of Silence-Lotto and Boonen are the favorites at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, a 120-plus-mile cobbled race. I might give the edge to Boonen, what with crazy Stijn Devolder and Sylvain Chavanel riding on his squad in support.

Otherwise, watch for Columbia-High Road with Edvald Hagen, Marcus Burghardt and Bert Grabsch, as well as the engineering boys at Cervelo with Roger Hammond, Thor Hushovd and Tour of Missouri king of the mountains Dominique Rollin. And you can never count out 900 year old Juan Antonio Flecha of Rabobank.

I’m also interested to see how former Cavendish lead-out man Gerald Ciolek does as the lead dog with Milram.

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday will feature much the same lineups.

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