Tom Boonen still entertains doubts about his current form prior to this weekend’s opening classics, but his Omega Pharma-Quick Step squad intends to act aggressively on the cobblestones of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and to set up a sprint for Mark Cavendish at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.

“I don’t feel as confident as I did last year for the race,” Boonen said during a press conference on Wednesday. “But it is what it is for the moment. I think right now I just need to try to do as many races as possible. I have as many question marks as everybody else about my shape. I really don’t know; I have no idea how I will react after 200 kilometers, hill after hill, and cobblestone after cobblestone. Today at training I tried to go a little bit faster and it was still hard, but we’ll see.”

Boonen enters the weekend’s semi-classics after making a belated start to his season at the Tour of Oman following surgery to curtail an infection in his elbow, which he damaged in a mountain bike crash in January. The Belgian champion was victorious in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in 2007 and 2009 and will be on the lookout for an important sign of his form ahead of Paris-Nice and Milano-San Remo.

According to Omega Pharma director Wilfried Peeters, also present at the press conference, Boonen will make up his mind whether or not he will take part in Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday. In Sunday’s race the team will ride to deliver a sprint finish in Kuurne to defending champion Mark Cavendish.

“For sure we will start [on Sunday] with the aim to bring Cavendish to the final sprint. He won last year and he is in good shape. In case of a nervous race we will have other riders able to enter in the main actions.”