Despite a fine season with an Olympic title and lots of success, Greg Van Avermaet has also had physical problems during the year. Victim of a broken collarbone at his crash in the Tour of Flanders, he also crashed recently where he returned to training for 2017. Hence, he now faces a small race against the clock to be on top from the start of next season.

Yesterday, a party was held in his honor in the town of Stoumont where Van Avermaet was in attendance. With his left foot in a splint to protect his fractured ankle, the BMC Racing rider gave an update to La Dernière Heure. 

"I feel good but obviously I would have preferred not to crash at the start of preparation,” he said. “I've never broken anything in my career and this year I suffered two fractures! My crash was a little stupid. I had already gone down that descent 3 or 4 times in the same way and this time I had a bit of bad luck.”

It was a rather silly incident since Van Avermaet tried to avoid some water during a mountain bike outing. 

After a period off the bike, the Belgian is expected to resume his preparation by the end of the year. 

"The preparation is still long and I hope to be ready for the start of next season. I'll take two or three weeks of rest and then I will resume training.”