Amidst a season start that has seen several important UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders sidelined by injury, Tadej Pogačar regained an important domestique ahead of the Tour of Flanders as Mikkel Bjerg made his return to racing on Friday.
Bjerg crashed back at the Tour Down Under, suffering fractures in his hand and acromioclavicular joint. He returned to riding relatively soon, but missed all of the early-season European racing, only returning for the E3 Saxo Classic, where he started what will be a short build up to next weekend's Tour of Flanders.
With several other important UAE riders out – Jay Vine and Jhonatan Narváez also crashed in Australia, whilst Tim Wellens fell heavily at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – the team has felt the squeeze this spring, dropping races from their programme and moving a rider up from their development team.
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It hasn't stopped Pogačar from winning, as he took titles at both Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, but it certainly added expectation onto the returns of riders like Bjerg.
"You feel a bit of urgency, you know?" Bjerg told Cyclingnews ahead of E3.
"Like, if you're the only one that has an injury, the team can maybe manage without you for a couple of weeks, but when we have so many guys with bad fortune and not good luck, then it's really like if everyone is out for maybe two weeks more than they need to be, then it's really hard for the guys that do all the races."
Even without riders like Wellens, Bjerg and Narváez, the team have rallied to keep on winning – even if cracking 100 this year now feels out of reach – and the Dane praised his colleagues' efforts whilst he was out of action.
"Some guys raced a lot, but also some guys really stepped up," he said. "I think Julius [Johansen] did some really good races and he basically did everything from the start of the year."
Bjerg was clear that "the body is ready to race again", rather than it being a rush to get back prematurely, but was clear about his expectations and level.
"I was pretty quick back on the bike, but it's almost eight weeks ago now that I crashed, so I had some good training," he said about his recovery. "But the other guys are also training so we will see. I feel pretty good, but it's never really easy to know how the body is going to react when you start racing."
On Friday, the goal was just to get back into the rhythm of things, with eyes further on the future. He finished 58th.
"Today is my first race back so I don't expect to race for the win, but it's more to build the pace back up after having two, three weeks of doing nothing [race-wise]," he said on Friday.
"It's never the start that you want to the season, but I'd prefer to be smart about it and try to build and have a good rest of the season also, instead of just trying to force myself back into good shape really quick. I feel like the pace is there but maybe the top level is coming in the next weeks."
His team and teammates will be hoping that top level, or something close to it, may come as soon as next Sunday. Bjerg was part of the line-up for both of Tadej Pogačar's previous Tour of Flanders victories, finishing 15th himself on one occasion, and he would certainly be a useful rider to have deep into the race next week.
"I think just today to get through without any issues or pain in the hand, and then hopefully I can do some more races before Flanders," he said. Normally I'll do Dwars door [Vlaanderen] also, so I hope the level is there to make a difference for Tadej in Flanders."
Eyes may already be on that topic, but more so than anything else, Bjerg's main feeling at the start of E3 seemed to be delight at being back in the fold.
"I'm just really excited to race," he said.
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