Team Picnic PostNL are set to miss two of their valuable riders for their Tour de France campaign, as both John Degenkolb and Fabio Jakobsen remain sidelined due to their current health condition.
John Degenkolb’s cobbled campaign came to an end after a very hard crash in the Tour of Flanders where he fractured his collarbone, elbow and wrist. The seriousness of the injuries became more apparent on further investigations, and Degenkolb underwent a successful surgery, but his recovery period was pushed backwards compared to what was initially predicted immediately after the Tour of Flanders.
For Jakobsen, he was diagnosed with flow limitation in the iliac artery in both of his legs and had surgery at the start of April. Since then, he has continued his recovery journey in a good way, starting with indoor training and recently returning to some steady and easier rides outdoors again.
However, for both riders, the upcoming Tour de France comes too early in their rehabilitation process.
Team Picnic PostNL doctor Camiel Aldershof explains further: “The injuries John sustained were more serious than we thought from those very first scans and analysis after Flanders. He has had extensive surgery and has been able to ride indoors on the trainer in a controlled environment. However, he still needs follow-up surgery to remove some of the material that is in place to speed up his recovery, but the timing of this means that he will not be ready to race at the beginning of July. From there, he can ride indoors again and once things are healed, we can then focus on riding outside and building up his training level and intensities.”
“On the other hand, Fabio had a successful operation and good rehabilitation so far. Firstly, after the needed time off the bike to fully recovery from the operation, he was able to start riding indoors at low intensity for 30 minutes per day and we’ve steadily built that up. Recently, he’s been able to return to training outside a bit which is great, but still at a lower intensity than is required to build up the base again for a three-week Grand Tour.”
Team Picnic PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna added: “At the start of the year both John and Fabio were on our long list for the Tour de France, but for both the race comes too early. Now our priority is to get them both back to full health and have a good training block where they can return to their high level, before we then look to a race program for the second half of the season.”
Team Picnic PostNL will announce their final selection for the Tour de France in the week before the race.