Lotto-Soudal team manager Marc Sergeant is not rushing Kris Boeckmans back into racing, as he knows the Belgian has a long road ahead of him after his Vuelta crash, which he could have died from.

“I had left the Vuelta a few days before the crash. I’d left this healthy young guy and then all of a sudden when I arrived at the hospital I saw this guy lying there who almost died. He was dependant on machines to keep him alive,” Sergeant told Cyclingnews.

“When he came back to Belgium I was one of the first to go and see him and there was nothing left of him, he’d lost 15 kilos, and it’s all muscle.”

Sergeant says that there is no time scale for his comeback and he lamented the early end to the season of a rider who was finally winning races and fulfilling his great talent.

“It’s hard to predict but we can hope. For years everyone was saying he was fast, talented and strong but he wasn’t winning races. This year he finally broke through that and was having a good year. For now we just need to see how he recovers."

In 2015, 28 year old Boeckmans won two stages and the GC at the Tour de Picardie, a stage and the GC at the World Ports Classic, a stage at the Etoile de Besseges and two one-day races: Le Samyn and Nokere Koerse.