Just over a month on from his spring-ending crash at Itzulia Basque Country, Remco Evenepoel has taken a major step towards the Tour de France, heading to altitude training camp in Spain.
The Belgian broke his collarbone and shoulder blade in the mass crash, which also saw fellow Tour rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič hit the deck on stage 4 of the race.
After undergoing surgery in the days after the crash, Evenepoel returned to indoor training towards the end of April and was back training outdoors on April 25.
Now he's at altitude in the mountains of Sierra Nevada with his Soudal-QuickStep team as he looks towards his main goal of the season this July.
Evenepoel has posted several training rides to Strava from the camp in recent days, including an 80km ride titled 'Okaaaayyy let's go' in which he tackled the Sierra Nevada climb three times on Monday.
On Tuesday he took on a longer 152km ride with teammates Ilan Van Wilder and Yves Lampaert, heading through Granada and taking a long, flatter route to the south-west of the city.
Across both rides, Evenepoel has racked up 4,200 metres of climbing as he ramps up his training ahead of a return to racing next month. His plan ahead of a Tour de France debut will be to take on the Tour de Suisse or Critérium du Dauphiné.
In July, he'll face off against current Giro d'Italia leader Tadej Pogačar, as well as Roglič, who avoided serious injury in the Itzulia crash.
Reigning Tour champion Vingegaard has faced an equally arduous fightback from a multitude of injuries in the same fall. The Dane spent 12 days in hospital after suffering fractures to his collarbone and ribs as well as a pulmonary contusion and a pneumothorax.
The Visma-Lease A Bike leader is set to miss the Dauphiné next month and has also been ruled out of his team's ongoing altitude camp at Sierra Nevada. On Tuesday he logged his first outdoor training ride as he begins his road to full fitness and an attempt to defend his Tour title.
"I feel good, it's improving day by day. I still have some things to recover from but it's going better and better. Of course, I hope to be there at the start of the Tour de France," said in a video released by his team on Tuesday.
"We don't know exactly how my shape and how my recovery will go but I will do everything I can to get there in my top shape."
