Denis Menchov (Katusha) had to forfeit Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège and will also miss out on the Tour de Romandie, which starts on Tuesday, after suffering a return of the knee injury that unsettled the first half of his 2012 season.

The Russian was training in Sierra Nevada, Spain, last week as part of his preparation for another shot at the Tour de France, when the injury reappeared.

“Unfortunately, the trauma which I suffered last year, when I did not finish Tour de Romandie, came back again,” said Menchov in a statement through his team. “At the moment I have some pain in my right knee and can’t work in the training at 100%.

“Because of that, together with team’s management I decided not to risk and not to participate in the upcoming races, which I had before in my calendar: Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour de Romandie,” he confirmed.

The duration of Menchov’s injury-enforced layoff remains uncertain. In 2012 he did not return to racing until the Critérium du Dauphiné, but this season he is scheduled to lead the Katusha team in the Giro d’Italia, which starts in Naples on May 4th. This now looks unlikely, but the 35-year-old ‘Silent Assassin’ remains optimistic about reaching top form for the start of the Tour de France on June 29.

“Shortly, I will get the full medical research to find the reasons of the pain and to start the treatment,” he said. “I hope, in the near future I will have a chance to come back for training and my preparation for the important races of my season.”

In Menchov’s absence Katusha will be spearheaded at the Tour of Romandie by Flèche Wallonne winner, Daniel Moreno, and Petr Ignatenko, who won the mountain and sprinter classifications at the Tour of Romandie last year.

Katusha line-up for Tour of Romandie:
Pavel Brutt, Xavier Florencio, Vladimir Gusev, Petr Ignatenko, Dmitriy Kozonchuk, Aliaksandr Kuchynski, Daniel Moreno and Simon Spilak.