Team Argos-Shimano rider Koen de Kort (Ned), who broke his collarbone during the fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar, underwent a successful operation at the Máxima Medical Centre in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, on Friday and is now recovering.
 
“The surgery went well. I flew home Thursday night from Qatar and had the operation Friday morning,” said the 30-year-old de Kort today. “I had to stay a night in the hospital and went home on Saturday to start the recovery process. I had quite a lot of pain the day after the operation, but since Sunday I’ve been doing well. I’ve started doing some indoor training already, so that is a good sign.”

His focus is now on getting healthy for the Flemish classics. The Dutchman will take it day by day and will not race until he is fully recovered. “I know it will be tight to be ready on time,” he said, “but we will see how it develops. In the ideal scenario, I will be able to do a stage race before the classics.”

Koen de Kort was really pleased to see his teammate Marcel Kittel winning in the Tour of Oman: “I knew it would come together one of these days. In the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Qatar we saw already that things were getting better, and we knew that when everything fell into place we would be able to take the win.”