Greg Van Avermaet withdraws from Milan-San Remo
Greg Van Avermaet, who had set Milan-San Remo as the first big meeting of the season, finally announced that he was forfeited due to bronchitis which has been handicapping him for a few days.
Present in Milan-Turin on Wednesday, the 37-year-old runner, world champion in 2016, was not reassured by his feelings, and his 41st place convinced him that he could not hold his rank on Saturday on such a distance (nearly 300 kilometers).
The Belgian from the AG2R-Citroën team could have entered on this occasion in the top 10 of the riders to have participated the most in the Primavera but he will have to remain, with his 15 participations, at the gates of this very select caste led by Wladimiro Panizza (ITA) between 1967 and 1985 and Philippe Gilbert (BEL) between 2004 and 2022 (18 participations each), and where we also find Gino Bartali (ITA, 17) and Erik Zabel (GER, 16), in particular.
It is also the continuation of his spring that Greg Van Avermaet did not want to spoil, a week after Milan-San Remo, the opening of the Flemish campaign on his land.
