There were high hopes heading into the Spring Classics for Omega Pharma's young sprinter, Greg van Avermaet. Van Avermaet had shown great promise over the preceding years, and perhaps wrongly, he was doled out a sentence as a hopeful for this year's famed cobbled races.
"It is terrible. I can think of no apparent reason for my bad spring. The more I wanted, the less it worked. Really, I was content for the classics to be over, so that I could put them behind me."
His season started with a fair bit of promise - 14th at the Strade Bianche and 12th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico seemed to bode well for supposed budding form, but 47th at Milan-Sanremo seemed to put paid to those thoughts. The successive results confirmed the bad news from Sanremo. Van Avermaet's spring never quite got off the ground. His best two finishes out of the Northern Classics were in the rather minor races: an 8th place at the Brabantse Pijl and an 11th place at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Van Avermaet is indeed looking to put the early month's of the season behind him and now is aiming his sights on Belgium's other top races. "Now, I can aim for the other goals in my season: the Tour of Belgium and then for sure, the Belgian Championships. I will use Dunkirk mainly to regain race pace."
In terms of his future, Van Avermaet is still not even 25-years-old. He admits to enjoying his time with the Lotto outfit, but thinks that it might be time to move on: "I've been with Lotto for four years and enjoyed my time here, but maybe it's time for a chance. I'm still not quite sure."
If he's confessing the idea to the press, you can bet that he has talked the idea over with some teams, something that he is also open about: "I've actually already talked with several teams. There's also an interview with the Omega program though. They have the last word, because if they match an offer from another team, then I must continue. I estimate my chances of staying are 50-50."
Sporza cites Katusha and BMC as possible future homes for the former Vuelta stage and points jersey winning Belgian sprinter.