It has been officially announced that Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar will return to racing and finally inaugurate his 2014 season at the Tour Méditerranéen held from February 13, as the Frenchman has successfully passed the final checks of his recently fractured collarbone.

It was never a part of the original plan for Voeckler to start the 2014 season no sooner than in the middle of February, but an unfortunate accident in the outskirts of Adelaide left the Frenchman with a broken collarbone and no hopes for participating at the Santos Tour Down Under, in which his team debuted this year as a World Tour squad.

Voeckler came back to France and undergone a successful surgery of his right collarbone, previously broken last year in a consequence of a crash he experienced at the Amstel Gold Race.

It was first announced that the 32-year old Frenchman would return to racing at the Volta ao Algarve held in Portugal from February 19th, but seemingly his recovery went faster than expected and the final checks confirmed that he is ready to compete one week earlier, at the Tour Méditerranéen.

Voeckler is expected to participate in Volta ao Algarve, Classic Sud Ardèche and Drôme Classic before heading to Paris – Nice, the first important test of the form before spring Classics.