SPRINT SPECIALIST TOM Boonen has endured a difficult Vuelta a España, failing to perform in the bunched finishes and, more surprisingly, finishing dead last in the Individual Time Trial, over ten minutes adrift of stage winner Tony Martin.

Until yesterday, the source of the Belgian’s poor form had been a mystery, confounding competitors and pundits alike.

Speaking to Belgian newspaper Het Niewsblad (translation via Cycling News), Boonen revealed that he had, for a number of days, been suffering from a debilitating groin injury.

“Because of the friction of the pants with the saddle, I suffer from an injury to the scrotum. The extreme heat and excessive sweating caused a heavy irritation in that area. There is a hole. It is not the first time that I have suffered in this place, but never as bad as now.”

Not content with merely revealing the nature of the injury to the public, the Belgian even went so far as to offer a (far too) detailed account of the treatment he’s been receiving.

“I got a ‘second skin’, and glued it at times to a kind of diaper. The perineum, the area between the scrotum and the anus, is simply the most delicate part of the body.”

That it is, that it is…

Read the full story (in English) at Cycling News>

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