Remco Evenepoel's recovery from his pelvis fracture sustained last August is proving protracted and the young Belgian rider will be off the bike for at least three more weeks.
The 20-year-old last week confirmed from his Deceunick-QuickStep training camp that he had already taken a break from training on his bike in recent weeks because of lingering pain from his injury.
He said on that occasion he was unsure when his season would start but now his team boss Patrick Lefevere has said Evenepoel would not be able to ride his bike for at least three weeks, adding there was an issue with how his pelvic bone had grown as it was recovery.
“It almost went too well,” Lefevere has De Tribune podcast. “We will not go the same again, the mistake of starting over too soon,” he added.
Advertisement
Related News
“Apparently the growth of the bone did not go as fast as everyone thought. He was in pain, but he did not say that. He thought that it was part of the rehabilitation.”
“In the hospital in Herentals we have seen that it is not yet 100 percent,” he said of the manner of Evenepoel’s pelvic bone knitting together to recover.
"We hoped that he would cycle again (from today) but we are not taking any more risks. So he will probably stay off the bike for another three weeks. That will take us to February 8th which is exactly three months before the start of the Giro."
Evenepoel crashed in Il Lombardia on mid August, when he shot over the side of a bridge and down into a ravine while descending at speed. He was in hospital for eight weeks and could not train for another five weeks, with that training now interrupted again.
However, Lefevere that Evenepoel had been told to stop
training in the middle of last month and the he would not be rushed back,
implying his return to training in the final months of last year was too fast
and a mistake.
Topics
