Primož Roglič to miss Ardennes classics with knee injury

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) will not race the Ardennes classics this week.

According to a report in Het Nieuwsblad, Roglič will miss Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège as he continues to recover from a knee injury he picked up earlier this month.

The Slovenian rider suffered with his knee injury during the six-day Itzulia Basque Country, where he won the opening time trial but slipped to eighth overall by the final stage.

Rather than push him back into racing, Jumbo-Visma has opted to allow Roglič a longer recovery period, according to Het Nieuwsblad.

Also read:

• Primož Roglič grinds through Itzulia Basque Country with muscle issue
• Wout van Aert hits Paris-Roubaix podium despite mishaps: ‘I rode on four bikes today’

With no Ardennes on his race program anymore, he is now set to head to altitude and won’t race again until June at the Criterium du Dauphiné, his final race ahead of the Tour de France.

With some unexpected time off the bike during the spring, van Aert is hoping to utilize his freshness to pull out a good result in his Liège-Bastogne-Liège debut. He will not ride Flèche Wallonne.

“One has to try to turn a setback into an advantage. I’m more fresh than usual because I didn’t race the last few weeks,” van Aert said in his post-Roubaix press conference Sunday. “If I would feel OK in Roubaix, then we would add Liège to my program. If you finish as runner-up in this race, it’s clear that I’m well recovered.

“I no longer need to worry about what happened. It’s always been a race that I wanted to do. Now we can use this to my advantage to experience how that race is and how far I can get there.”