The coronavirus crisis has caused many races to be cancelled or postponed, and more are expected in the coming weeks and months. Cofidis climber Jesper Hansen is one of them.
Hansen told the Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet on Monday that he and many other riders are in a difficult situation, although he continues to train in time for whatever the next race may be. [Hansen told Ekstrabladet.dk, "I want to race to win a new contract. But there's nothing I can do except keep training, try to maintain some sort of form, and hope it all goes away soon."
"I don't really know how hard I should train," he said, echoing many of his colleagues who currently have no clear goals.
"I'm thinking that maybe two or three weeks before the next race I'll be able to do some hard intervals in preparation for the race."Hansen, 29, joined Cofidis in 2019 after two seasons with Astana; from 2014 to 2016 he was with the Danish-Russian WorldTour team Tinkoff-Saxo, winning a stage and overall at the 2015 Tour of Norway in the 2015 Tour of Norway, where he won a stage and the overall.
Dane's 2019 season was interrupted by illness after he rode to seventh place overall at the Tour of California in May. This season, he had already competed in the Tour de la Provence, where he finished 30th overall, and the ill-fated Tour of the UAE, where the race was interrupted by a coronavirus two days before the end, and Hansen, as one of Cofidis' team members, was quarantined in a hotel for over a week.
According to Ekstrabladet, Hansen's spring program included the Volta Catalunya, Tour de Romandie, and Giro d'Italia, all of which were canceled or postponed.
"It's not good because we wanted to do well in these races," Hansen said. 'The team has been told that we won't be able to race until June at the earliest. If so, one can only hope that many of the postponed races will be held at the same time as the Criterium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse (in June).
Because of this year's Olympics, the Tour de France will start on June 27, but Hansen expects the postponed races to be held in July as well.
"After such a long break, of course everyone wants to race.
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