Greipel to miss World Championships in Limburg

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André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) will skip this year’s UCI Road World Championships in the Netherlands, according to German media outlets. The German finished third behind Mark Cavendish and Matt Goss at last year’s World’s in Copenhagen however, the course slated for this year’s race is too difficult according to the sprinter.

"The route is too difficult for me," Greipel told Focus Online. "From the beginning, I'm not ready for it."

Greipel finished second to Arnaud Démare (FDJ-Big Mat) at the weekend’s Vattenfall Cyclassics and will now look to wind down his season with a few smaller races. The big sprinter cited the high temperatures for his failure to deliver another win for his Lotto Belisol team in Germany whilst praising the ability of the young Frenchman Démare.

"My engine had some cooling problems," joked Greipel after experiencing temperatures up to 38 degrees during the 245.6km race. "I can be happy with second place as I suffer in these hot conditions. I prefer it to be around 10 degrees cooler," said Greipel to Radsport-News.com.

"Arnaud has proven that he is a good sprinter," he continued.

"This is my first WorldTour win and I'm really happy that I won the race. There were many breakaways and it was really hard because of the heat today. I drank more than ten bottles," Demare said.

Greipel has enjoyed his best season to date, having taken 16 victories so far this year, three stage wins and finished second in the points classification at the Tour de France. His next race is yet to be announced however, following his previous seasons it’s expected Greipel will contest another ten or so race days before finishing up for the year.