Klaas Vantornout will not be at the start of the Koppenbergcross tomorrow. The Belgian champion is suffering after a crash last week.

It has been a bad start to the season for Klaas Vantornout. The Belgian champion was below his usual level and then had to take a break because fo an infection.

Vantornout made his comeback last weekend, but in the Superprestige race in Zonhoven things went wrong agai. Vantornout crashed and had to withdraw.

The Sunweb leader has used Twitter to announce that by the effects of the crash prevents him from starting the Koppenbergcross.

"With a lot of pain in my heart I will not be there on Sunday. I have too much trouble," he tweeted. "I hope that I can train again as I should next week because that has been impossible the last few weeks.

"This is unfortunate," manager Jurgen Mettepenningen tells Sporza. "But the shoulder is not yet healed. He has trained this week. It went well, but the shoulder began to hurt again and it is better that he does not start on Sunday.

"The Koppenbergcross is a race you should be able to do at full power. He can't do that currently, then it makes no sense to start there."

Normally Vantornout will be back next weekend. "If he is selected for the European Championships in Huijbergen on November 7, he will start there," said Mettepenningen. "If that is not the case, he will be back in Ruddervoorde on November 8."