As it was already expected, Jurgen Roelandts will not participate in the coming Paris-Roubaix 2014 edition following a multiple injuries sustained in the crash-marred Ronde van Vlaanderen last weekend. In such circumstances and with three other key classics riders including Andre Greipel pulled out of competition, Lotto-Belisol will line up at the Hell of the North without the appointed leader.

Lotto-Belisol have recently suffered an enormous amount of bad luck, with Gert Dockx, Frederik Willems and Andre Greipel being forced out of competition with broken collarbones before their leader for cobbled monuments – Roelandts, crashed out of the Ronde van Vlaanderen in its opening phase.

“Only to get on a bike is quite a task. On Thursday I’ve been to the hospital again because I still suffered from a lot of pain in my pelvis following the crash,” Roelandts told Sporza.

“They saw that my abs were ripped. I also suffer from a lot of pain in my wrist and elbow. You can’t ride 50 kilometers of cobbles in such condition.”

As a result, Lotto-Belisol will line up at Paris-Roubaix without a leader, but Roelandts couldn’t do anything to improve difficult situation of the Belgian team,

“If you'd seen me walking through the stairs at home, you would have known enough already.”

Not only the Belgian squad have been chased by bad luck, but also Roelandts missed several opportunities to participate in the major cobbled events last couple of seasons due to injuries and crashes.

“I’m a professional since seven years and I’ve been missing the spring classics for half of that time,” Roelandts lamented.

“It will hurt to watch [Paris-Roubaix] on TV on Sunday. Obviously it was my target and it’s painful to have missed it. I’ll watch the two objectives of my season because I want to know how our young riders are doing.”

It is yet to e determined when Roelandts would be able to return to competition, however, with his seasons major objectives irrevocably behind his back, the Lotto-Belisol rider aims to recover well without any unnecessary rush.

“I don’t want to rush as everything needs to be healed properly. Maybe I can return to competition in the end of May.”