Originally fearful that knee surgery in November could stop him from riding the Classics – or even bring an end to his career – Danish rider Matti Breschel has been able to resume training. The 26 year old Rabobank rider has got a 30 minutes training ride in and is optimistic that things could continue to build well.
“I hope to be at a training camp that starts on January 16 and will then ride some races in Spain shortly after. If I can implement it, it should be feasible,” he told TV2 Sport.
Breschel was troubled by knee issues since last year’s Paris-Roubaix, although he was able to continue racing for much of the season and went very close to winning the world road race title in Geelong last October.
He later had scar tissue removed by Doctor Eilif Larsen at the Amadeus Specialist Center in Brondby, Denmark, confessing beforehand that he had real fears about his career.
“I haven’t slept a wink in a few days now,” he told DR Sports at the time. “It’s something that you realise, that you might never sit on a bicycle again.”
Fortunately that wasn’t the case and Larsen told him that he simply needed to stay off the bike for a month to month and a half after his operation. That gave Breschel hope that he could yet build the form to try to win Paris-Roubaix in 2011.
"If we're talking four to six weeks, then there is enough time,” he said then. “As a sportsman, I of course hope that it happens a little faster."
Providing there’s no complications in his buildup from this point, Breschel will aim to challenge former Saxo Bank team-mate Fabian Cancellara in the cobbled classics of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Either way, he’s taking an optimists view of things, believing that if there are any complications which prevent him from making it to the Classics, that it could deliver compensatory benefits later in the year.
“I hope a little that if I am injured in the spring, that it means that I’m riding so well in the summer that I can win a stage at the Tour,” he explained.
Breschel is regarded as a major talent for one day races. He has had a fine career thus far, taking silver and bronze medals at the worlds in 2010 and 2008 respectively, as well as wins last year in the Dwars door Vlaanderen, on stage three of the Tour of Denmark and in the points classification in the same race.
It seems only a matter of time before he wins a major Classic, although whether it is this year or further ahead remains to be seen.