"There are no shortcuts" - Kasper Asgreen putting in the hard work towards cobbled classics after injury

After a serious injury forced Kasper Asgreen to pull out of last year's Tour de France and brought an end to his 2022 campaign, the Dane knew the road to recovery would be long and hard but he's now almost back to his best.

"It's been a bit of a long way back. I had four months without doing much last year, so I started further behind that normal," Asgreen revealed to Cycling News. "But it seems to be going ok so far. It's definitely coming along, but still with some work to do."

In just his fourth race back Soudal - Quick-Step's Asgreen claimed the king of the mountains classification win at the Volta ao Algarve but the 28-year-old realises there is still much work to do. "I would obviously like to be a bit further ahead than I am right now, but I'm getting there," Asgreen said. "That's all it is: hard work. There are no shortcuts. I still have a lot of work to do but I think by Flanders and Roubaix I'll be in full flight."

Speaking of his time spent recovering over the winter, Asgreen revealed just how much time he had spent ensuring he would return to full fitness. "Once I took a good break, the fatigue syndrome went away. But the main concern was still the knee. I lost a lot of muscle mass on the quadricep."

"That was the main work I did, trying to get that back working and building that strength back. It was a lot of time in the gym," he said. "After that, I could start my training again in October, and I kind of transitioned from rehab to normal strength training and normal training on the bike."