Despite being able to ride outdoors, unlike some of his colleagues, Greg Van Avermaet will be off the bike for a week due to a knee injury sustained during the coronavirus lockdown.

While riders living in France and Spain are confined to their homes and not allowed to exercise outdoors, the CCC Team rider has been keeping his mind and body healthy with almost daily rides in Belgium.

With racing currently suspended, he has not been doing targeted training but steady rides to maintain fitness, while also throwing in some mountain bike rides to add a little fun and variety.

The mountain biking, however, seems to be the source of a new knee injury.

"I have problems with my knee, I think because of a bad position on my mountain bike," Van Avermaet said in an interview with De Morgen.

"This injury is an overload of the tendon above the knee. I also have that in winter when I do too many things that I am not used to. In the season with the regular racing bike, I never suffer from anything."

Van Avermaet will rest for a week so that the tendon can recover before he starts riding again. He added that he was not planning to see a physiotherapist, even if it was allowed.

"I have a bit of fear of contamination and prefer to come into contact with as few people as possible," he said.

"I know a few people in the area who got the virus and who had no underlying health problems, and they were in pretty bad shape. In any case, we riders have always been a bit wary of viruses and bacteria."

Van Avermaet recently won the 'lockdown' edition of the Tour of Flanders, raced virtually on home training platforms. This season, he will ride the Tour de France, which has been rescheduled for late August and September, before targeting the Classics, which have been moved to an as yet unspecified date in the autumn.