World champion Cadel Evans recently withdrew from two scheduled ProTour races in Canada, but he has now said that he will return to competition on September 11th.
“Next stop for me will be Paris-Brussels, GP Fourmie and GP Wallone,” he indicated today. “I still have a bit of work to do before then, but it's coming along.”
Evans has had a very strong start to the season with several big results, including victory in Flèche Wallonne and on stage seven of the Giro d’Italia, was well as fifth overall in the latter. He went to the Tour de France aiming to rediscover the sort of form which saw him take second overall in 2007 and 2008, but crashed on stage eight and broke his elbow. He managed to take over the race lead, however, but lost the jersey and all hope of winning the following day.
He gamely struggled on to Paris, and since then has been working on getting back into a good physical shape after suffering that injury.
“It's been a 'relatively' quite few weeks for me, we're not sorry about that,” he said in his blog, referring to the length of time he has been away from serious competition. “While training has been mostly dictated by the orthopedic surgeon, having time off the bike does allow to have some time with family and friends. A couple of criteriums so that I don't forget the joys of travelling.”
He hasn’t been able to log as much saddle time as normal, but has had to work hard in other ways in order to ensure that he gets fully back on track and has no lasting effects from his fracture. Stretching and strengthening exercise are an important part of recovery, and he has had guidance in doing things the best way.
“I’ve been working with the physiotherapist to get mobility back in my arm,” he explained. “It's coming along, as the bone (radius head) heals, the range of extension in returning. It's not 100%, but good enough to train normally now.”
Last year Evans prepared for a surprise victory in the world championships by riding the Vuelta a España, his second Grand Tour of the year. He’s already done two this season, however, and this plus the fact that the BMC Racing Team didn’t enter means that they will miss the Vuelta.
He will have a decent programme, though, choosing European races in order to aid his treatment. “From here on, I'll stick with a European race program leading into the Worlds. Mostly to be close to the doctors and therapists,” he said.