Lennert Van Eetvelt has to undergo surgery to treat the overload of his knee joint

Lennert Van Eetvelt will undergo a surgery on Monday on the knee that has been bothering him since the beginning of March. Due to an overload of that joint, the Lotto Dstny rider had to skip the Volta a Catalunya.

Van Eetvelt was last time in action at Strade Bianche at the beginning of March where he finished 11th. The 22-year-old had won UAE Tour earlier in 2024 yet he'll have to wait for his next chance to raise hands for quite some time now. Initially it was thought the Belgian would be back to action at Tour de Hongrie (May 8-12), but his appointment at the Hungarian race was cancelled to allow Van Eetvelt to fully recover after the surgery.

The prognosis is that he will then have to rest for at least an extra week before resuming light training again. His return to competition is expected within five weeks at the earliest.

Originally, the Tour de Suisse (June 9-16) was on the program of the 22-year-old climber, who has recently extended his contract with the Belgian ProTour team until the end of 2026. If everything goes well, we should see Van Eeetvelt later this year take on the Vuelta a Espana.