Team Sky’s Ian Stannard did make it to the start of Ghent-Wevelgem yesterday, but decided against participating due to a cold. A sore throat and slight fever were quoted by the team as the ailments troubling the rider who hopes to be able to rebound quickly for the Tour of Flanders this week.

Stannard placed third in the E3 Harelbeke behind teammate Michal Kwiatkowski last Friday. Yesterday, he stepped off the black bus and into a team car while his remaining seven team-mates mounted their bikes. Stannard then returned to the team’s hotel in Kortrijk to recover without making an attempt to start the race.

“It’s just a cold that you’d have in normal life, but a bike rider is under stress,” Sky coach, Rod Ellingworth told Cycling Weekly. “Ian wants to race, but he knows logically he’d only dig himself into a big hole. This is a big race, it’s a WorldTour and he wants to race because he loves these Classics. This is a precaution, and it’s just can we stop it now before the other races.”

Stannard might line up for the Three Days of De Panne on Tuesday if he is feeling better. His goal, evidently, is to be ready for the Tour of Flanders on Sunday and Paris-Roubaix the following Sunday.

“Only they know how they feel and if they are on the edge of being sick. Sometimes you have to be sensible,” added Ellingworth. “Yesterday evening, he started to feel it. He said his throat felt a bit rough and then woke up this morning, feeling a bit worse. If he was going out to do a normal job, no sweat, but he needs to take a precaution.

“We have a decent group for the Classics. Roubaix is Ian’s race, he’d love to be fantastic and that is what we are aiming for with him. Along the route, it doesn’t always go to plan and you have to divert left and right sometimes. This is a little diversion, and hopefully he can get back on track, but there’s no saying he will.”