Bora-Hansgrohe have confirmed that Primoz Roglič will not take part in this year’s Ardennes Classics, and will instead concentrate on making a full recovery from his injuries suffered in the mass crash on stage 4 of Itzulia Basque Country.
Although he did not suffer any fractures in the downhill crash off the Alto de Olaeta, Roglič was one of 11 abandons, including Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), and the Slovenian's body was badly battered in the crash.
Evenepoel had already announced that he would be missing the Ardennes Classics as a result of his injuries, and on Friday Bora-Hansgrohe confirmed that Roglič would also no longer be taking part in the series of hilly races, missing both La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, April 17, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège four days later.
While Evenepoel captured back-to-back editions of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2022 and 2023, La Doyenne was also won by Roglič in 2020. To date, it remains the Slovenian's lone Monument win.
In a team statement, Bora said "Primož Roglič will continue to focus on recovering from the injuries he sustained at Itzulia Basque Country in the coming days.
"He plans to resume training on the bike next week. The two race days at La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège have therefore been removed from his program."
Dan Lorang, Head of Performance Bora-Hansgrohe, added "Primož was with us the whole week to treat his extensive wounds and his knee.
“We want to give his body time to fully recover from these injuries, because our big goal is the Tour de France. That's why we've decided to focus on his training for the next week."
After winning the opening stage of Itzulia Basque Country and leading it until he crashed out, the next race on Roglič’s program is currently now set to be the Critérium du Dauphiné in early June.
It has not yet been established if Roglič will take on any other races in the run-up to June to substitute the events he's been forced to miss.
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