Niki Terpstra has confirmed that he will not be riding the Tour de France this year.
The Dutchman, now in his seventh season as a WorldTour rider, has been on a good run of form in 2015, which started with a successful defence of his Tour of Qatar title.
He followed that up with a string of second place finishes, including in a memorable Ghent-Wevelgem won by Luca Paolini, as well as at the Tour of Flanders.
Terpstra had, however, been off the road for the last month and a half after finishing 15th at Paris-Roubaix - a race he won last year - before returning to action in this week's Tour of Belgium.
And he will not be on the start line when the Tour de France rolls out of Utrecht on July 4.
He told the Etixx-Quick Step website: "Together with the team we decided that I will not take the start at Le Tour.
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"This year my programme is a little different than usual. It was a difficult decision because with the start in Holland, as a Dutch rider, it would have been something special to be riding on what I consider to be home roads. But sometimes you have to make choices to find the right programme.
"I will be riding the Eneco Tour, and after that we will see what my programme is for the rest of the season."
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