His Rabobank team announced the bad news, with Erik Breukink saying, "It doesn't make any sense to come to the start with Freire being only half of himself. If you want to have any chance in a race like that, you have to be in top form."
The team management thus decided to replace Freire with Sebastian Langeveld, this year's winner of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, who is also returning to racing after a crash in San Remo.
Rabobank's line-up in Gent on Sunday will also include Lars Boom, Rick Flens, Tom Leezer, Maarten Tjallingii, Graeme Brown, Michael Matthews and Maarten Wynants. Boom and Langeveld will also be racing the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen on Saturday.
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