"It’s all around Bettiol now" - EF Education-EasyPost manager Jonathan Vaughters admits the team is struggling with bad health ahead of Tour of Flanders

Alberto Bettiol will return to competition this week after crashing out of the E3 Saxo Classic last Friday. The Milano-Torino winner and fifth man of consequent Milano-Sanremo kicked off the season strongly, but his run-up to attempt to win second Tour of Flanders has been set back by this crash. Yet, EF Education-EasyPost have no other leader available in top-shape for the Flemish classics and so the Italian has no time to lick his wounds.

"He’s not as injured as we originally feared. On Monday he was set to do a long five-hour ride and he came through that well. From that, we’ve made the call. If today went well then he’d race on Wednesday and then definitely the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. He’s not too messed up from that crash," team boss Jonathan Vaughters told GCN.

The American team didn't have much luck with health at the start of the season, with Neilson Powless only just returning from an illness and Rui Costa still out with a broken collarbone, the team’s Classics ambitions had to cool down a bit.

"With Neilson out, and Rui, we have one leader. With Flanders, we originally thought that we had quite a complete team, with Rui, Neilson and Bettiol. If they were all firing on all cylinders it would be a really competitive Flanders team but as it is, it’s all around Bettiol now," added Vaughters.