Tendinitis keeps Tom Boonen out of the Tour de France

According to Velo News, QuickStep rider Tom Boonen will not be participating in this years Tour de France due to “patellar tendinitis in his left knee” [VeloNews].

Tom Boonen, After Stage 1 Crash, Amgen Tour of California

Boonen himself cites the injury has going back to the final sprint crash in the Tour de Suise and the crash in Stage 1 of the Amgen Tour of California.

After three days of rest, yesterday I trained for five hours on the parcour of the national championship in Leuven. The knee pain has always accompanied me. During the last hour of training I had to stop more than once because of the pain. Everything began with the crash in California and the situation became even worse after the fall in Switzerland. [VeloNews]

At the time of this writing, the official QuickStep website had not yet posted anything regarding this announcement.