"It was about time I was allowed to race again": Lotto's gem Jarno Widar resumes racing in Switzerland after knee injury

Jarno Widar's made a name for himself as one of the most outstanding talents during his two-year stint in Lotto's development team, during which time he had won the "Baby" Giro Next Gen, Ronde de l'Isard or Giro Valle d'Aosta and became under-23 European road champion. Naturally, the expectations from his professional debut this season were therefore through the roof - yet the overall impression has been a little amiss so far.

Widar kicked off his season in Portugal with a 4th place at the Figueira Champions Classic (1.Pro), completed a decent Volta ao Algarve with a seventh place in Malhao, but two "non-classified" results at one-day races in Ardeche were the last team he's been seen in action for the next three months.

The reason for that is that the 20-year-old was struck by quite some bad luck - first a virus in France, and subsequently a knee injury caused by a training crash. Not the debut season he had envisioned.

Naturally, so Widar did sound quite over-the-top because of the wait ahead of the Tour de Suisse - his first WorldTour appointment. "It was about time I was allowed to race again, it has been long enough." Speaking about the injury, he said in a pre-race press release: "Of course, at first you curse, but setbacks are simply part of the sport."

What's been particularly annoying with this injury is the uncertainty, Widar outlines to IDLProCycling: "It took a long time before we knew what we were going to do with my knee. I was off the bike for four weeks, but I have now also been training again for a month. I feel pretty good, so I’m happy to be back."

Whilst the period of wait has been seemingly endless, it was also an opportunity for self-discovery - an important time of shaping the still-young rider's mental fortitude.

"In the end, you can only focus on the things you can control. I wanted to recover as quickly as possible, and resting was very important in that. Then you have to switch the focus to the next races, and from the moment I could train again, I went at it fully."

Now with this ailment out of the way, Widar can finally once again look ahead to his big goals for this season, in particular the Spanish block of racing in August culminating at the Vuelta a Espana (August 22 - September 13).

"I'm definitely not at my top level yet, but I do feel really good in training. The power is maybe not my best ever yet, but I can't complain. The numbers are better than at the start of this season."

"I'm going on altitude training in July and then I’ll pick up my old programme again, with the Clásica San Sebastián, the Vuelta a Burgos and the Vuelta a España. Here at the Tour de Suisse, I want to give the best of myself, whatever result that brings. We'll see, I do have confidence."

Widar returned to racing in big style with a sixth place at the GP Gippingen (1.1), covering the situation as his teammate Liam Slock cruised towards his first professional victory. However the next time, Widar intends to be the one winning.

While the first stage didn't go to Widar's plan as Tadej Pogacar's long solo completely shattered the peloton and the young Belgian lost more than 20 minutes, the second day of racing already brought forward Widar's better side with a 23rd place and a finish within the main group of favourites.