Greg Van Avermaet is recovering well following surgery on his fractured left ankle, BMC Racing Team today confirmed.

Van Avermaet met with Dr. Tim Leenders, who performed the surgery on November 14, and was given the go ahead to begin training on the rollers.

“Greg has been resting as much as possible and his recovery is going as planned. Now that he has been given the green light to start riding on the rollers, Greg will begin to increase his training load day by day,” BMC Racing Team Chief Medical Officer Dr. Max Testa said.

“It will be another 7-10 days before Greg can ride on the road, coinciding perfectly with BMC Racing Team’s annual pre-season training camp which commences on December 9, where we can monitor Greg’s recovery well.”

Van Avermaet is looking forward to getting his 2017 season preparation underway.

“I was back riding today on the rollers and everything is going fine. When I ride easy on the rollers I don’t have any pain, so I just have to not overdo it. It was a good session and I also went swimming so it’s good to now be able to do something,” Van Avermaet explained.

“I think my ankle will heal faster now and by next week hopefully I can do more. We will see how it goes.”

With his recovery on track, Van Avermaet is already thinking about next year’s races, including the Ronde van Vlaanderen race route which was released today.

“It’s a big difference to the Ronde van Vlaanderen parcours, especially from the start and it’s going to pass my hometown. It’s never passed there and now when it does for the first time I’m going to be one of the contenders to win the race, so that’s a nice feeling.

“I look forward to the start and then the Muur van Geraardsbergen, as it’s a climb I like. It’s a good thing that they didn’t change the last 80km because it’s pretty important that they keep it the same. I like the final and we will see how it plays out, but I think the 2017 race has a nice parcours.”