Lance Armstrong refused to speak with Tom Boonen for years: "And I was only 20 years old, you know..."

In the podcast Stamcafé Koers, Tom Boonen opened up about his rocky relationship with Lance Armstrong. The Belgian cyclist joined Armstrong's American team at a young age, but their partnership was far from successful. Boonen eventually broke his contract early — a highly unusual move in those days — and made the switch to Quick-Step, where his career truly took off. "For a few years, he didn’t say a word to me," Boonen revealed.

In late 2001, Boonen joined the powerhouse US Postal team led by Armstrong as a trainee, signing on officially in 2002. His first real encounter with Armstrong, a three-time Tour de France winner at the time, was during the Tour of Flanders that season. "Honestly, he wasn’t intimidating at all back then. That year, Gianpaolo Mondini suddenly disappeared. He was caught up in a scandal and, all of a sudden, he was just gone," Boonen recalled.

"I remember Armstrong saying, ‘It’s better without guys like that, they should send them all home.’ A few years later, you look back and think, seriously?" Boonen added. Just one week after that particular Tour of Flanders, Boonen made a name for himself by finishing third in a legendary edition of Paris-Roubaix. By the following winter, he had transferred to Patrick Lefevere’s Quick-Step team.

Boonen announced his move via email to all his US Postal teammates. "Lance replied: ‘Good luck, you’ll need it.’ That hit me hard. And I was only 20 years old, you know. For a couple of years, he wouldn’t speak to me whenever we crossed paths in races," the Belgian fan favorite recalled. Looking back, he’s glad he made the switch, especially given that Armstrong was later found guilty of using doping.

"Imagine if I’d stayed two more years at US Postal — I would’ve been good enough to make the Tour de France team. And then you just get caught up in the system. It’s as simple as that," Boonen explained. "It wasn’t even a choice either. It was a system young riders got pulled into. At Quick-Step, they said, ‘We’re not going to do that.’ Later, things like the blood passport and reporting your whereabouts came into the picture. I was one of the first riders to do that. But at US Postal, they were still focused on winning the Tour de France. I ended up in a completely different mindset."

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Tom Boonen with George Hincapie in Paris-Roubaix 2002

Armstrong spoke to Boonen again after six years

Boonen has spoken before about the years-long silence between him and Armstrong. "It lasted six years. By then, I thought, ‘F*ck you, man.’ Every race we were both in, I’d pass him and say, ‘Hey Lance,’ and he’d just stare straight ahead, angry and grim. I just laughed at him, and honestly, that’s the best way to make a statement," said Boonen, who is known for his outspoken nature.

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