Giant-Alpecin is still recovering from the severe setback after the training accident last Saturday. Zico Waeytens is sorry for his captain John Degenkolb but realizes that he could now find himself as Giant-Alpecin captain in the coming weeks.

Zico Waeytens did now see the accident but heard the news at the team hotel. On Sunday, the Giant-Alpecin rider visited his captain John Degenkolb in the hospital.

"John remains positive," Waeytens tells Sporza. "It was an emotional visit as John realizes that this is an important time. We are in the period of preparation for the classics, but he will miss that preparation.”

Does Waeytens know more about Degenkolb’s return to racing? "No, we just have to wait and see. It is not clear yet. But he stays focused on the racing. On my visit, he asked if I could train well."

For Waeytens, the crash is a serious mental setback. "We are people, not robots. On a human level everything must be good, then we can think about the race.

"On Sunday we were still finding out what to do but yesterday we trained again.”

Last year Zico Waeytens (24) was working for Degenkolb in the cobbled classics but now he could get a leadership role.

"If John won’t do the classics, I'll be normally leader. But I would have preferred it otherwise and had been pleased to help John," said Waeytens.

"I hope he returns as soon as possible and that I can work for John. Otherwise I won’t miss this chance, but I would have preferred it to be different.”

According to Degenkolb’s surgeon, the German won’t be able to race for 3 months.