"I have been off the bike for 10 weeks now... the shoulder isn’t ready to absorb the shocks of the road" - Remco Evenepoel still suffering from BPost van crash

Remco Evenepoel looked poised for a big season in 2025. After having had his winter preparation plans ruined by a crash with the opening door of a BPost van though, the Olympic champion remains unable to ride outside.

"The first couple of weeks after my injury were difficult, because this happened just as I was preparing to start training again, but I tried to take my mind off this during the holidays and things are better now," the Belgian leader of Soudal - Quick-Step explained on Friday in a press release to his team's official website. "It’s been almost five weeks now that I didn’t do any proper sports, which means that I have been off the bike for ten weeks now. That’s why the most important thing for me is to start my rehab and jump on the rollers, hopefully on Saturday. I will combine riding with physio sessions. I am ready mentally to be back on the bike, but I won’t push myself to go all in from the beginning, because I want to make a full recovery of my shoulder."

Although a return to riding on the rollers is a positive development. A return to riding on the road remains some way off for Evenepoel. "The reason I’m not going outside yet is that the shoulder isn’t ready to absorb the shocks of the road," he explains. "I hope to restart training outside at the beginning of February, that would be the best scenario at this point. As I said, it wasn’t easy when this happened, especially as it was my second injury on that side in the same year and I was coming after an excellent summer – which was one of the best moments of my career – but I got a lot of support from my family and my team and eventually stopped thinking about this and focused instead only on my recovery."

Evenepoel already has a return day in mind too. "I hope to be back for Brabantse Pijl, which is close to my home and would serve as a strong motivation," he says. "I think it’s easier to return to competition in one-day races instead of stage races, and I love the Ardennes Classics, so hopefully I will be in good shape by then, in three months’ time."

"If everything goes well in the Classics, maybe I will also start the Tour de Romandie, just to add a couple more days of racing. Then I will do the Critérium du Dauphiné, the National Championships, and of course, go to some altitude training camps. I want to be at 200% for the Tour de France, and if things go as planned and I continue to improve, I am confident I can start there in a strong form and fight for a good result,” Evenepoel concludes.