NSN reveal why key riders Williams and Blackmore have been missing all season — and will miss the Ardennes too

NSN Cycling Team had been hoping for a miracle, but the Swiss-registered squad will be without two of its biggest weapons for the Ardennes Classics. Stephen Williams and Joe Blackmore will not be fit in time for the Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne or Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The team has finally shed light on what is going on with both riders.

A glance at their results tells the story. Neither Williams nor Blackmore has raced a single day in 2026. Williams's last race dates back to 1 May 2025, when he abandoned Eschborn-Frankfurt. He had already failed to finish Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège before that. The Giro d'Abruzzo, which he completed almost a year ago, remains his last full race.

The 29-year-old Welshman already has eleven victories to his name — and they are far from minor. He won a stage at the Tour de Suisse in 2022, took overall victories at the CRO Race (2021), Arctic Race of Norway (2023) and Tour Down Under (2024), and claimed two stages plus the overall title at the Tour of Britain in 2024. His biggest win came at the 2024 Flèche Wallonne.

Williams started his 2025 season in Australia and completed the Giro d'Abruzzo, but results never came. So what exactly is the problem? Williams himself revealed that he has been dealing with quadriceps tendonitis — an inflammation of the tendon connecting the large thigh muscle to the kneecap. NSN confirmed he is currently undergoing intensive rehabilitation. The injury pushed Williams into a dark period.

Only rest and physiotherapy can resolve the condition. It has been a long road, but there is some positive news for Williams and the team. "The plan is to resume full training within four to six weeks," the team said in a statement on social media. That would place his return to training somewhere in May — meaning Williams will have been sidelined for a full year. No date for a return to racing has been mentioned.

Blackmore, the other rider NSN had earmarked as a key figure for the Ardennes, will also not be seen racing in the coming weeks. The 23-year-old Englishman has not raced in 2026 either, despite making a huge impression over the past two seasons.

In 2024, he won the Tour of Rwanda, the Tour de Taiwan and the Circuit des Ardennes in quick succession. He then took the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège title and later won the Tour de l'Avenir — cycling's most prestigious under-23 stage race. At elite level, he already turned heads at the Brabantse Pijl, where he followed Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel deep into the finale. He also finished fifth at the Tour of Britain.

Blackmore ended 2025 on a good note at the Gree-Tour of Guangxi but ran into trouble over the winter. "Next week he will undergo further specialist examinations in the United Kingdom and Belgium for persistent knee pain that has kept him from the start line this year," NSN said. No recovery timeline has been provided.