Van Avermaet still waiting to return

The health problems that have grounded Silence-Lotto's Greg Van Avermaet this spring are slowing getting better – with slowly being the key word. The 22 year-old picked up a virus in the Ruta del Sol, which has damaged his equilibrium. He has already had to sit out the opening Belgian races and Paris-Nice He has now recovered sufficiently to be back on his bike again, but will not be able to ride Tirreno-Adriatico, as he had hoped.

"I thought that I was fine again, but the team doctor gave me the red card," he told sportwereld.be. "It's too bad, because I really needed Tirreno to prepare for the classics." He was depressed upon hearing that he would have to continue to wait to race, but "I will certainly resume racing in the Nokere Koerse (March 19) and my condition is surely not bad."

To keep that condition up, Van Avermaet is currently training in Tuscany with team-mates Francis De Greef and Pieter Jacobs.