Reus hoping to return in 2009

By Susan Westemeyer

Rabobank's Kai Reus is recovering from head wounds suffered in a training crash last July and hopes to return to the peloton in the coming season. After training with the Rabobank Continental team, he is now home again and training full-time.

"I trained well in France and in the Eifel {Germany} where I was with the Continental team of Nico Verhoeven. That went so well that we decided to move on to the next step," he wrote on his website, kaireus.nl. "I now follow a rather targeted programme, under which I am alternately either in North Holland or in the surroundings of my home in Lanaken, Belgium. I have already trained this week behind the motorbike, which went very well."

Reus was injured in a training crash in France last year. He went out with his helmet, which nearly had deadly consequences for the young Dutch first-year rider, who cannot remember the details of the crash. Reus was held in an induced coma for 12 days.

Rabobank has stood behind the young rider for the whole time of his rehabilitation. "Kai has shown remarkable strength, both physically and mentally," team spokesman Luuc Eisenga told Cyclingnews. "We are taking this step by step, we have coached and followed him closely over the passed year. Kai will return to racing when he is ready for it, we don't have a fixed date for it."