‘I became someone I never wanted to be’ - Tom Boonen reveals why he needed therapy after retirement

The Belgian Classics legend, who ended his career in 2017, spoke about the experience during an appearance on VTM's Happy Hour. Despite everything he achieved on the bike, Boonen admitted that adjusting to life outside professional cycling required more than simply finding a new occupation.

“I spent 16 or 17 years in a world that isn't real, but one where you give everything you have,” he explained. “I needed time to recover from that.”

For Boonen, it was not so much the familiar problem of athletes struggling to fill the void left by competition. What troubled him was the effect that years of living inside professional cycling's bubble had gradually had on his personality.

“Cycling had turned me into someone I wasn't, or someone I didn't want to be.”

Few riders have known the pressure of being a Belgian cycling superstar quite like Boonen.

With four Paris-Roubaix victories, three Tour of Flanders titles and a world championship rainbow jersey from Madrid in 2005, he established himself as one of the greatest one-day racers of his generation.

His achievements went well beyond the cobbled Classics. Boonen won six stages of the Tour de France and took the green jersey in 2007, while his remarkable 2012 campaign saw him complete an unprecedented sweep of E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the same spring.

In Belgium, where cycling is followed with almost religious devotion, Boonen became a household name, with all the expectations and scrutiny that came with it.

His career was not without controversy, however, and there were times when his private life made as many headlines as his performances on the bike. Looking back, Boonen believes the extraordinary circumstances of life as a professional cyclist gradually took their toll.

“It's such an extreme life, with incredible highs and lows,” he said. “You're taken out of the real world and placed in the cycling world. Everything is done for you and suddenly you're a hero to so many people.”

At the time, Boonen felt he was able to keep the attention in perspective. It was only after retirement that he began to recognise its lasting effects.

“I was always quite good at filtering it all out, but it still left traces that I needed to deal with.”

Boonen eventually sought professional help to work through those experiences, and says he has no regrets about doing so.

“It really helps, and I can recommend it to anyone,” he said. “Everything I hadn't been able to process before, I've finally managed to come to terms with.”

He does not consider his years in professional cycling traumatic, but admits the experience affected him more than he initially realised. Therapy helped him put some of those feelings to rest, although he is reluctant to describe himself as a changed man.

“I was already a calm person, but now I'm even calmer.”

Since retiring in 2017, Boonen has found a new competitive outlet in motorsport, recently claiming his first Belgian rally title. Away from racing, he has also settled into a quieter family life, a far cry from the years when his schedule revolved almost entirely around cycling.

Looking back, Boonen has few complaints about where his career took him, even if it took some time to come to terms with what those years had demanded of him.

“I'm very happy with where I've ended up in life,” he said.