{"id":611083,"date":"2026-04-16T16:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611083\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:46:08","slug":"i-was-3-weeks-off-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611083\/","title":{"rendered":"I was 3 weeks off the road"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Wellens<\/a> is a previous winner of De Brabantse Pijl<\/a> and this Friday he makes a comeback to racing in front of his home crowds. The Belgian national champion is back to racing and will be one of UAE Team Emirates – XRG<\/a>‘s leaders in the search for a victory.\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to my first race back after the crash \u2013 it took quite a long time before I was back. I was 3 weeks off the road in total and lost quite a bit of condition. I\u2019ve been able to build up some form but feel like I\u2019m still far from my best shape,” Wellens said in a press release <\/a>issued by the team.Wellens was a key part of Tadej Pogacar’s support crew for the spring classics however, even without him, the World Champion was able to win all races except for Paris-Roubaix. Wellens crashed out of Kuurne – Bruxelles – Kuurne and suffered a fractured collarbone. For three weeks he did not train on the road and, with another three weeks of training, he is now on track to resume his initial schedule. The Belgian is likely to race the Ardennes classics soon as an important part of a UAE that has several of its cards injured<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI have great memories from Brabantse Pijl since my victory in 2018 \u2013 it\u2019s a race that suits me. I\u2019m also very happy to show my national jersey again in Belgium. I won\u2019t have the best legs but I\u2019ll do my best to work for the team as I build up for the goals ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Belgian classic he will be joined by Beno\u00eet Cosnefroy, himself a previous leader of the classic and a man still on the hunt for his first win in the UAE jersey; and Florian Vermeersch who has had a stellar spring campaign with plenty top results. He most recently crashed out of Paris-Roubaix, however did not suffer meaningful injuries from it.<\/p>\n

Filippo Baroncini, Mikkel Bjerg, Luca Giaimi and under-23 rider Matteo Vanden Wijngaert complete the lineup.<\/p>\n

UAE Team Emirates – XRG for De Brabantse Pijl 2026RidersTim WellensBeno\u00eet CosnefroyFilippo BaronciniMikkel BjergLuca GiaimiFlorian VermeerschMatteo Vanden Wijngaert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Wellens is a previous winner of De Brabantse Pijl and this Friday he makes a comeback to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,253354,784,85,164013,19805],"class_list":["post-611083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brabantse-pijl","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tim-wellens","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}