Jurgen Van Den Brock is finally back in training after his dramatic crash in the Tour de France which left him with severe knee injuries. The Belgian was back on his bike yesterday and has now started to rebuild his condition for next year's Tour de France.

For the second time in three years, Jurgen Van Den Broeck's Tour de France ambitions were dashed by a bad crash in the first of the race when the Belgian hit the deck on the 5th stage to Marseille in this year's edition of the French grand tour. Knee pain forced him out of the race and subsequent examinations showed a partial crack of the posterior cruciate ligament, a partial crack of the medial ligament, an injury of the cartilage, a bone bruise and a bruise of the patella tendon.

The injuries were so severe that the doctors even feared that Van Den Broeck's career had come to an end but luckily the rehabilitation has been a successful one. Yesterday, the Belgian was finally given the green light to return to his bike.

"Today finally green light to start training towards 2014!! #mesohappy," he write on Twitter.

Van Den Broeck will now start to rebuild his condition for the 2014 season and will once again target the Tour de France. He was 4th in the race in both 2010 and 2012 but so far, the podium has always eluded him. If the recent trend continues, the 2014 season will be a successful one for the Belgian who had bad crashes in 2009, 2011 and 2013.

In addition to his Tour ambitions, Van Den Broeck plans to target weeklong stage races in the early part of the year. This year he had similar plans but lost time on a descent in the Volta a Catalunya and crashed out of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. He made in amends in the Tour de Romandie where he was 7th before falling ill in the Criterium du Dauphiné.

"In big lines my program will stay the same, although there’s the chance that after a few years absence I’ll ride Paris – Nice or Tirreno – Adriatico again," he said earlier this year. "The first part of the season I will aim for a good result in the WorldTour stage races. After a week of rest I’ll then start my preparation for the Tour. That’s why the criticism about the fact that my season is too much focused on the Tour isn’t correct."

Van Den Broeck will once again be the stage race leader at Lotto Belisol in 2014 but will have better support from new signings Maxime Monfort, Sander Armee and Tony Gallopin.