Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) has had to cancel his participation in one of his major autumn objectives, the Eneco Tour, which starts on Monday. Having already prevented him from racing the Tour of Denmark, a cyst makes it impossible for him to race in his home race and no date for his return to competition has yet been set.

2013 certainly hasn't been Tom Boonen's best year. The season started off badly as he had to forfeit his participation in the Tour de San Luis and the Tour of Oman due to a stomach infection and elbow surgery. When he had finally ridden himself into a decent form, he crashed in the Tour of Flanders and so he missed out on both his home race and the Paris-Roubaix.

Things started to turn around when he performed well in the Tour of Belgium in May and when he won a stage of the Tour de Wallonie just two weeks ago, things started to look brighter for the former Belgian champion. A cyst did, however, force him to miss last week's Tour of Denmark and now he has also been ruled out of the Eneco Tour which was one of his autumn targets and which he led for a few stages last year.

"I’m really disappointed," said Boonen. “I really like the Eneco Tour and it’s too bad I can’t be at the starting line, but right now it’s essential that I take the proper time to heal from this cyst, which is preventing me from training consistently and which I don’t want to underestimate. I have to say 2013 has definitely not been my year. Now the goal is to get better and get back to the races in the month of September, even though as things are now we can’t really set any definite date for a return.”

Those September goals could include the renamed Brussels Cycling Classic (formerly Paris-Bruxelles) which he won last year while he could also target a first win in the Paris-Tours in October. For now, it is, however, all about recovering from his health issues.