Uijtdebroeks delays comeback after elbow fracture as Paris–Nice comes too soon

Uijtdebroeks is back in building mode. “When you don’t ride for ten days and then have to wait more than a week before you can even do an intensive session again, your condition drops,” he told La Dernière Heure. “There are no miracles. My advantage is that I feel my winter base was very solid and that I haven’t lost too much of the foundation of my fitness.”

The elbow is also still making itself felt. “If I hit a bump on a descent, I still pull a face a bit,” he explained. “I still feel the vibration through my whole right arm. But I think that also comes from a kind of tension that’s still there during the first few days outside — that seems normal to me.”

His recovery means the Movistar rider will not be at Paris–Nice. There had been hope he might be back in time, but it has turned out to be a step too far. “I really wanted to ride the Race to the Sun because the route includes a team time trial this year and it would have been a great dress rehearsal for the Tour de France, which also starts with that discipline,” he said.

“But as the weeks went by, the team and I realised it wasn’t realistic to fully focus on that — especially because I’m still struggling to ride my time trial bike.” Still, Uijtdebroeks stressed it is not a disaster: “This withdrawal isn’t the end of the world; the season is long, and the Critérium du Dauphiné (now the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) also includes a team time trial.”

The wait to see him back in the peloton should not be too long. “I’ll return to racing at Milan–Turin (18 March), an important one-day race to lift morale and get to know the peloton, before I continue to the Tour of Catalonia (23–29 March). There will be a strong field in that Spanish stage race. After that, I go back to my original programme: Itzulia Basque Country and the Ardennes Classics.”

Those Ardennes races are a newer — but important — goal for Uijtdebroeks. “Yes, that remains a concrete objective and it’s the thought that guides me,” he said. “I want to be in top form from the Basque Country through Liège–Bastogne–Liège. I really want to arrive at Liège and La Flèche Wallonne in good condition: my training and race programme has been built with that in mind, and I think the timing is realistic.”

Even with the injury setback, Uijtdebroeks says there have been positives too: he has spent more time around the staff than ever and feels very much at home at Movistar. “Compared to my previous team, Visma | Lease a Bike, the staff have a more Latin temperament, I’d say,” he explained. “There’s a warmer atmosphere that suits me perfectly. That atmosphere, combined with the very professional approach to every aspect of performance, is fantastic in my opinion.”

He does notice differences — especially in the details. At the Dutch team everything was worked out to the finest margins, but that did not always suit him. “Unlike some teams, we don’t use unnecessary gadgets that sometimes seem to be just for show,” he said. “A 3D simulation isn’t really needed for a training session.”