Maaskant out of Eneco after Vattenfall crash

Martijn Maaskant (Garmin-Slipstream) will be forced to miss this week's Eneco Tour of Benelux after he came down in a crash in the final stages of the Vattenfall Cyclassics on Sunday.

"There was crash [in the peloton that] I couldn't avoid," Maaskant told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. "It is disappointing that I will miss the Eneco Tour, I was looking forward to racing again in the Netherlands. The start in Rotterdam will be beautiful."

While his Garmin teammate Tyler Farrar won the German ProTour race, Maaskant re-opened a knee injury, sustained a week earlier at the Clásica San Sebastián, as he came down along with a number of riders two kilometres from the line in Hamburg.

Maaskant was taken to hospital where he received stitches to the wound in his left knee. He told De Telegraaf that he had received news of Farrar's win while at the hospital. "It was nice to hear from the team that Tyler had won the race. That was something good."

The injury will force Maaskant to take a break from what has been a busy season so far for the Dutchman. He has raced consistently since the start of his season at the Tour of Qatar in February. He rode throughout the Spring Classics season and finished fourth in the Tour of Flanders. In July he answered a last minute call-up to replace an injured Dan Martin in the Garmin squad for the Tour de France.

Despite his own injury-enforced break, the 26-year-old said he doesn't expect the accident to keep him out of competition for long and hopes to return at the Tour of Britain on September 12. "This injury is annoying, but that's cycling."

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