Both Tony Gallopin and Jelle Wallays are injured heading into Paris-Roubaix on Sunday with the two crashing during a recon ride of the cobbles on Thursday, adding to the list of bad luck plaguing the Lotto Soundal team this Classics season. Sprinter André Greipel was looking to contend in the sprint at Scheldeprijs Wednesday before being slowed by the late-race crash.

“Tony Gallopin crashed during the recon and also Jelle Wallays hit the ground,” said sport director Herman Frison. “We have to wait how Tony’s knee and Jelle’s hand will heal.”

Frison commented that the team is not having a great Classics campaign, both due to bad luck and not riding well in the key moments of the races. Jürgen Roelandts salvaged a result for the team on Wednesday by sprinting to fourth.

“We stand at the start without a main leader. Unfortunately, because of the results of the past weeks, we can’t put one rider forward to do the job. We have several riders who have proven in the past that they can ride well over cobbles. Hopefully we can perform better as a team than previous races. The next days, we will determine our strategy and it’s up to us to follow that as well as possible. The past weeks, we often missed the decisive moment and we really have to avoid that on Sunday.”

“Up till now the spring didn’t turn out as we wanted for the team, but we can’t lose hope and definitely shouldn’t give up,” said Jens Debusschere who had to miss last year’s Roubaix after a crash, but previously finished in the top-ten. “Each time we focus on the next race. It is difficult to explain why it didn’t ran smoothly the past weeks. We hope that all goes well on Sunday. Roubaix is the last race of the spring for me.”