An injury to the quadricep and knee of 2009 World Champion, Cadel Evans, will keep the Australian out of both the Amstel Gold Race and Fleche Wallonne.
The injury stems from a crash the BMC Tour de France leader suffered on March 31st whilst training in the area near his home in Switzerland.
"Normally, I thought I'd be back by now, but I had a check-up Tuesday and the injury has proven to be more of an obstacle than we first thought," said the 34 year old in a team press release.
Writing on his website, Evans describes the situation a little more fully.
"What seemed and was first diagnosed as bruising to the vasto mediale has since been diagnosed as bruising also to the femur. Something that takes a little longer to heal."
BMC Race Team Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Max Testa, says that the MRI on Tuesday revealed the continued presence of a small bruise on the bone of last year's Fleche Wallonne winner's knee. Testa says that a few more days out of competition, then a return to training, followed by racing will be the best plan of attack for the Tour de France hopeful.
"From a medical standpoint, he's out of competition for at least the next five days. Keeping him out longer will help the ultimate injury outcome and also give him time to get training to return on the top end."
Evans admits disappointment in missing out on a chance to not only repeat his victory atop the Mur de Huy, but also to support his teammate, Greg Van Avermaet on Sunday at the Amstel Gold Race. However, while those two races would have been nice, the number one priority is still ok - the Tour de France.
"I had wanted to be a helper for Greg Van Avermaet at Amstel Gold and on a good level for Fleche Wallonne. But this won't be a long-term problem, especially for my preparation for the Tour. It's just a little hiccup along the way."
It's a blow for BMC, as they'll lose some major horsepower without Evans in support of Van Avermaet, and of course, they'll lose a proven winner on Wednesday at La Fleche Wallonne.
While the BMC press release indicates that Evans is definitively out of La Fleche, the rider leaves the door open at least a tiny bit on his website: "Now, unfortunately for Amstel Gold Race and most likely Fleche Wallonne, I will not be able to start."
At this point, it does appear highly unlikely that any risks would be taken to get Evans into Wednesday's Fleche Wallonne, so it appears that the more probably date of return to competition for Evans will be the Tour de Romandie, a race he won in 2006. Romandie runs from April 26th to May 1st.
"I need the time to recover full and make up for the lost training time, and then hopefully be back at it for the Tour of Romandie," writes Evans. "On the up side, it allows me a little more time to progress towards the important months of May and June, in preparation for July."
For now, Evans's plan is simple: "physio-ice-training-ice-recovery-repeat until better."