“We’ll stick to the plan and if we have to remove some races, then we’ll remove them” - Ralph Denk on Primož Roglič’s Ardennes Classics schedule

After he was involved in a horrific crash on the descent of the Olaeta climb on stage 4 of Itzulia Basque Country, Primož Roglič has returned to training in recent days, but his participation in the upcoming Ardennes Classics is still up in the air.

The BORA-hansgrohe rider managed to escape without any fractures or broken bones from his crash last week, which also saw Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard hit the deck, with both of them being hospitalised and requiring surgery due to their injuries.

However, the abrasions and road rash that Roglič did suffer has made it difficult for him to train and thus far he has only been able to ride on his indoor trainer.

On how the Slovenian has been recovering, his team manager Ralph Denk said in an interview with GCN that “he’s back on the indoor trainer. Tuesday was his first day and it’s step-by-step. The crash and the injuries were serious”.

Roglič was set to race both La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège next week, with Denk stating that “it’s not decided yet with the Ardennes, because on the rollers, looking forward to the Ardennes is being very optimistic. They’re on the schedule, with Flèche and Liège, but we’re realistic. With a break of a week, maybe we’ll have a Primož who isn’t at 100 per cent for those races”.

The team are not afraid to pull Roglič out of a race if he is not deemed fit enough to start though, as Denk said “I think we’ll stick to the plan and if we have to remove some races, then we’ll remove them”.

Despite having struggled at Paris-Nice at the start of the season, Roglič had looked in good form in the opening stages of Itzulia Basque Country, as he took his first victory for BORA-hansgrohe in the time trial on stage 1 and had been in the race lead when he abandoned the race.

On Roglič’s maiden win, Denk said that “for us, it was super important because it was the first individual time trial that he did for us, and with all the equipment change. We were very confident that we could give him a very fast package but it wasn’t race-proven. The result, which included the mistake on the route, showed that our equipment is super fast and that our aerodynamic guys and our partners like Specialized and Sportful did a fantastic job”.