'I'm not done with performing' - Michael Valgren on countdown to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Michael Valgren racing at the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta 2024
Michael Valgren racing at the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta 2024 (Image credit: Getty Images)

No two roads to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Opening Weekend are ever identical, but for former winner Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), his long countdown to Saturday’s start in Gent is perhaps one of the rarest and most tenacious of recent years.

Valgren was victorious in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2018 before going on to clinch the Amstel Gold Race the same spring. However, in June 2022, at the Route d’Occitanie, a major crash left the Danish rider with a fractured pelvis, two ruptured knee ligaments and a ruptured meniscus. That evening, doctors were unwilling to say if a return to racing was ever going to be possible or if Valgren’s career was over.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.