Matthew Busche finished the Tour of Romandie last week, marking a successful return to racing after a scaphoid injury sustained in the second Trofeo race in Mallorca in the last days of January.

He spoke to Trek Factory Racing.com about the surgery, his recovery process and his comeback to racing in Switzerland last week. He also spoke on his big goal for the year, the Tour of California, starting tomorrow.

“After that accident I had to undergo surgery, which is never a good thing because you need more time to recover. It has been a long road since. The first four weeks after the crash were really tough because I couldn’t train outside. I was on the trainer, indoors, doing it two times a day. It’s very hard mentally do to that, especially when I was looking at my goals for the season and I just felt like I was losing valuable time. Also, when I was seeing other guys racing, I just wanted to be out there with them! It was definitely hard to handle.”

“I know it’s not fully healed, but it’s pretty functional, and at some point as a competitor you have to get back out there and show what you are capable of. The race in California was one of the first part of the season’s goals so I knew I needed to race [in Romandie] and get that in my legs. I was excited to go to Romandie for my first race back in the peloton.”

Wet conditions, a hilly course and a fast pace made Romandie one of the toughest races on the calendar, made even worse for Busche as it was his first race in about four months.

“It was a really hard race! I know where I probably should be and I am not there right now, but I am staying positive because I’ve had some good feelings. I really have the impression that after I recover from [Romandie] I am going to be good in California; getting this one race in legs should hopefully help a lot.”

“The weather was not good In Switzerland so it didn’t help. Having one day of full rain was hard. I was nervous with my wrist, but I got through it; it’s definitely still nerve-wracking being in a race and not being able to completely forget about an injury because it’s not fully one hundred percent functional.”

After his injury, he says he has altered his goals for the Tour of California, but is still hoping to ride a good GC at the race.

“I really hope I can do a top ten. Originally, I was definitely hoping top five or even podium. That’s still a goal, but realistically it’s going to be harder than I thought, although I know we’ll have a good team there.”

“It will also be nice to race in my country; it’s an extra motivation for everybody to race in his own country. I usually perform well in the US for whatever reason so hopefully that continues. I am looking forward to this race and I definitely will have to take it day by day and see what will happen.”