"Never say never," was Tom Boonen's answer to a question about whether he could return to cycling; the 42-year-old Belgian, in an interview with cycling show "Velofollies" on Sporza (opens in new tab), is a future coach, coach, and even gravel racing, he revealed that he is considering.

"I'm also thinking about looking for another cycling competition. I'm still a little hesitant, but I'm getting the itch again," Boonen said in an interview at a trade show he visited to promote his "Classified" wireless shifting system.

His racing plans include mountain bike marathons and gravel races.

"I'm thinking of something like Roc du Maroc or gravel racing," he said.

Asked if he could take on a top-level competitor like Mathieu Van der Pol in the World Championships, Boonen replied: "Who knows? In any case, the World Championships are getting very big and have a lot of potential. Nature, freedom...

"It's a great opportunity to get back to what cycling is all about: nature, freedom...

Last October, Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (France) won the UCI Gravel World Championships single-handedly to claim their first elite men's and women's world titles.

Boonen retired from professional road racing in 2017 after a 17-year career that included winning the World Road Race Championships, four Paris-Roubaix titles, three Tour de Flanders titles, and six Tour de France stage wins.

He is enjoying new challenges and successes in motorsports, but after his short-lived partnership with then Lotto Soudal and his role as advisor and ambassador for the team's "Captains of Cycling" program, he is still a director and national coach. He has not ruled out the idea of returning to professional cycling as a director or national coach.

"Will I ever be a team leader or national coach? When I first retired, I had the chance to do something like that with Quick Step, but I finally said I wanted to do something different and take a break after all the attention," Boonen said.

"But it's not that I don't have ambition. I'm still young."

In honor of his career as a professional cyclist, Boonen was honored this week with a monument depicting two legs.

"It was no laughing matter. I had to stand on one leg for three hours on one side and three hours on the other. Then my legs were coated with some kind of latex, and finally they were plastered.

This work is located at the top of the Taaienberg (Bohnenberg) in Markedal, which appears in the Tour de Flanders and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and is also known as the place where Bohnen launches his attacks.

"Of course, I have great ties to the Taaienberg. Over the course of my career, it has gradually come to be known as Boonenberg. Of course, I am very honored and happy to have been part of this artistic process," Boonen said.

"Sometimes I even banged my fist on the table. I never wanted to do that, because it's not a statue. So I'm very happy to be immortalized here."