Kasper Asgreen’s crash at the Tour de Suisse in June delivered far more than a knee injury, as even though the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl rider's wound healed, his recovery didn’t run as expected.
The 2021 Tour of Flanders winner took part in the Tour de France shortly afterwards, an event with special significance given that the Grand Départ was in his native Denmark. Asgreen, fourth in the time trial at the 2021 World Championships, was a guaranteed crowd favourite even if he was considered only an outside chance for victory.
He finished back in 43rd on that opening stage, and that was his best result of the 2022 Tour which came to an end before stage 9. At the time, QuickStep noted that medical staff had decided he should stop so as not to endanger the second part of his season. Instead, stage 8 of the Tour was Asgreen's final race day of 2022.
“The stresses of the crash and the subsequent attempts to get him ready for the Tour has unfortunately led to Kasper developing a fatigue syndrome, meaning that his body is no longer recovering from even low intensity efforts,” QuickStep-AlphaVinyl said in a statement.
“It has therefore been decided that he will stop racing for the rest of this season and take a period of recuperation, before focusing on his preparations for 2023.”
Many of the biggest targets of his season with QuickStep-AlphaVinyl have been completed, with the rider busy through the early season, particularly with the spring Classics, securing his best result of the season at Strade Bianche with third.
He has, however, already missed out on lining up at Denmark's National Road Championships, which was between the Tour de Suisse and Tour de France, therefore had to hand over the national time trial title which he had held for three years running.
The early end to Asgreen's season will also also take him out of the running for the World Championships, where he has delivered ever improving results in the individual time trial for Denmark the past three years. The 27-year-old finished in 17th during the race against the clock in 2019, sixth in 2020 and fourth in 2021, less than three seconds away from bronze.
Asgreen, who is signed with QuickStep through to the end of 2024, also reiterated the team statement on social media, adding his thanks to his team and its manager Patrick Lefevere "for showing support during this difficult time".
