Peter Sagan will be forced to miss the opening Classics weekend after contracting coronavirus earlier this month, according to a report.
Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe team announced that the former world champion had gone into quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19 during a Gran Canaria training camp, with his brother Juraj and team-mate Erika Baška also testing positive.
Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports that Sagan no longer has acute symptoms and that he will undergo further testing before he returns to training, but the 31-year-old will not be in Flanders at the end of February.
A spokesperson for Bora-Hansgrohe said: “His quarantine is over. Peter is feeling well and has no more acute symptoms.
“Peter will not race the Opening Weekend. For the rest of his programme, it is still to early to make any decisions now.”
Sagan will now undergo a series of tests in the coming days, including a blood test, MRI, and an X-ray of his lungs before he can get back on the bike.
He had been scheduled to make his return to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, which mark the start of the cobbled Classic season, having not raced there since 2017 when he won Kuurne in a five-rider sprint.
Sagan has been shaking up his early-season races in recent years, focusing on the Tour Down Under and the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina before starting his Classics campaign in Milan-San Remo.
But this year Sagan had hoped to race in Flanders in on February 27 and 28, but will instead delay the start to his season.
He is now scheduled to race Tirreno-Adriatico before heading to San Remo, then racing through the cobbled Classics including the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix.
Sagan also hopes to race the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.
