LThe coronavirus vaccine still has material to cut. If in the world of tennis -and sports- he stars Novak Djokovic top news, cycling has also joined. A sport in which vaccination began very early, with the UAE-Team Emirates de Tadej Pogacar, but that with the third dose comes to the fore. In the case of one of its stars, Belgian classic rider Greg Van Avermaet, AG2R-Citron rider.
Van Avermaet has decided to postpone the booster vaccine, according to EFE reports. Olympic gold at the Rio 2016 Games You want to avoid consequences that could hurt your performance. At 36, he may have his last chance on his land, the cobblestones, and another bad year could prove fatal. “The vaccine could have been to blame for my bad end of last year. Especially in the second half of the 2021 season things did not go the way I wanted. I blame my vaccination. Since then, I no longer race at a high level “, confesses the Belgian.
Jakob Fuglsang used the same argument
The Danish cyclist was one of those who thought as Greg Van Avermaet. Jakob Fuglsang admitted that his poor performance could come from the vaccine he received before the Tour de France. Back then the Astana cyclist -who has now signed for Israel- failed in the gala round, his great objective of the course.
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Van Avermaet gets vaccinated before the Dauphin, the big race before the Tour de France. “It was after a hard training period and it was not a good idea,” he said. “Normally I am among the best and I can win stages, but in the Tour I had a hard time in the peloton. I wanted to quit, but my team asked me to continue to help Ben O’Connor,” he adds.
For this reason, its classic campaign will start without a vaccine. “I saw how my blood values were not at the same level as always, my body was fighting something. So, I am not interested in the new injection. I’ll have it later,” he argues.
As, Van Avermaet wants to get fit and forgetting his disappointing 2021, and not injecting the third dose is one of his solutions. Of course, he plans to receive it at the end of the European classics campaign, which goes from the Milan-San Remo until the last races before the Giro d’Italia. “I’m a year older, but I think I can still do well and I’m still training hard every day,” he says.
Mathieu Van der Poel has knee surgery
In the cycling squad, the operation of Mathieu Van der Poel. The Dutchman went through an operating room in the town of Herentals to treat the knee. Although his hasty end to the cyclocross season came from relapsing back pain, Alpecin-Fenix has affirmed that in one of the falls he kneels. Specifically, scar tissue has been treated that formed in the patella.
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