the foot of the Muur van Geraardsbergen, where he helped to force a breakaway group alongside team leader and eventual race winner Philippe Gilbert, and played a key part in enabling the group to distance the bunch. However his own hopes of scoring a podium finish were scuppered by a mechanical problem on the Taaienberg, and he finished the race in 37th place. He next raced at the Scheldeprijs, his last race in Belgium, which paid tribute to Boonen by starting in his hometown of Mol. He was part of the lead-out train which helped teammate Marcel Kittel take the win. At his final race, Paris–Roubaix, Boonen finished 13th: after being part of the lead group with 35 km to go, he encouraged teammate Zdeněk Štybar to follow an attack by Daniel Oss, eventually enabling the Czech rider to finish the race as runner-up to Greg Van Avermaet. After racing In February 2018 it was announced that Boonen had joined forces with Quick Step's long-time Belgian rivals, , becoming a shareholder in the team and taking up the roles of technological adviser and ambassador for the team's Captains of Cycling supporters' programme, and linking up with his former agent Paul De Geyter, who had joined the squad as general manager in September 2017. Motorsport career In June 2017, Boonen was awarded his motor racing licence after passing the required tests. The following month he made his car racing debut in the Volkswagen Beetle-based Fun Cup, competing in the 25 Hours of the VW Fun Cup at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps: he and team-mates Anthony Kumpen, Bert Longin and Ruben Van Gucht finished in 29th place out of 118 starters, 15 laps down on the winning team of Cédric Bollen, Fred Caprasse, Guillaume Mondron and Fred Bouvy. Boonen made his full season racing debut in 2018, competing in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series for Braxx Racing in the Elite 2 class. Boonen scored a Top-10 finish in the second race of the season at Valencia. He scored another Top-10 finish in the final race of the season at Zolder and finished 13th in the standings with two Top-10 finishes throughout the year. For the 2019 season, he drove for Deldiche Racing in the Belcar championship. He escaped major injuries during a crash at Assen that year after he collided with Kenneth Heyer at high speed. Heyer's car was launched into the