Ruddervoorde Superprestige race marks former World champion’s return from knee injury
Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) will start his first race of the season on Sunday at the first round of the Superprestige series in Ruddervoorde, Belgium. The 2009 World champion injured his knee in a training accident in mid-September, forcing him to miss the first few races of the year, including last Sunday’s first round of the Gazet van Antwerpen (GvA) series in Namen/Namur.
“I’m ready to go yes, but I’m obviously a way behind,” Albert told Sporza.
“I had to wait for the scan on Thursday,” he explained, referring to his injured knee, “but I spent the whole week without pain and had a reasonably good ride. But with that injury and the flu that I had, I’ve had 14 days off the bike. I’ll therefore be at a disadvantage, but if I can pick up some points the championship is not completely lost.”
Such a short time after an injury, there will obviously be some risk of damaging the knee again; Albert is confident that, providing he is a little careful, he ought to be okay.
“There’s always a little bit of fear,” he said, “but so long as I don’t crash and don’t get a crazy swipe, there should be no problem.”
Having missed the season’s first races, as well as so much training time, Albert will obviously be way off the pace of his main rivals. He goes into the race with no expectation of winning, and in fact acknowledges to try and do so could be bad.
“Essentially [I want] to get race experience and find my rhythm,” he said. “I hope that in three or four weekends I’ll be back to the top and fighting for victory. If I were to give everything for the win on Sunday it would be too much punishment.”
The season long GvA Trofee and Superprestige series are decided by points awarded for finishing positions in each race. GvA Trofee races award 25 points to the winner down to 1 point for 20th place, with bonus points awarded for leading the series; this puts Albert 28 points behind Namur winner Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea) before he has started.
The Superprestige awards 15 points to the winner down to 1 point for 15th though, meaning a good performance from Albert this weekend may mean he can stay on contention.
“The GvA Trofee is gone, I’m certain of that, but if I’m fifth in Ruddervoorde the Superprestige is still on as I’ll only be five points behind the leader. But it’s all over if I’m 15th.”