Lieuwe Westra will be missing from the National Championships in both the time trial and the road race. The Astana rider has been struggling with mental problems after the heavy crash of fellow rider Stig Broeckx.. "I don't have my head one hundred percent  in cycling. And you need that," he tells Friesch Dagblad .

Westra will undergo blood tests to rule out a physical cause of his poor form. "I will get the results within a few days, but I do not expect any crazy things. That means that the problem is in my head."

The day after the incident with Broeckx, Westra left the Baloise Belgium Tour. Then he line up at the Gippingen GP and the Tour of Switzerland. 

"When things don't work, you ask yourself questions. I live alone in a small appartment in Monaco for many consecutive months and did not see my mother for more than a year and then something like Broeckx' crash happens. Do I want all this? The thought  has haunted me for some time."

Westra no longer dares to give it his all in neither training nor racing.

"Normally, I throw myself down a descent at 80km/h without any problem but now I dare hardly ride more than a hundred kilometers away from home," says the 33-year-old Monaco."Suppose that something happens with my bike in the middle of nowhere. Who will bring me home then?"