Danish rider likely to miss first semi-Classics

Winner of a stage in last year’s Giro d’Italia plus the GP de Fourmies, Lars Bak’s goal of a strong Classics campaign has been dented by an injury suffered yesterday in the GP de La Marseillaise.



The Danish Lotto Belisol rider crashed heavily in the finale of the race and hurt his wrist. This was later x-rayed and it was determined that he had fractured his scaphoid.



“The scans were checked by doctor Toon Claes and after consultation with team doctor Jan Mathieu it was decided that a small operation will have to take place tomorrow morning by doctor De Schrijver in the hospital of Herentals,” stated the team today.



A small screw will be placed into the bone and help the healing to take place. It also removes the need for him to spend six weeks in a plaster cast.



Bak will miss a week’s training, and will then be able to start building up the kilometres once again. It means that he will miss the first Belgian semi-Classics, but should be able the subsequent, bigger one day events.



Bak finished fifth in the 2011 Paris-Roubaix and has identified the race as one of his prime objectives.



His place on the team’s lineup for the Etoile de Bessèges will be taken by Jonas Van Genechten.