CCC team member Greg Van Avermaert will be altering his early season race program by starting his winter training later than usual in order to peak a little later than in recent years in order to be at his best for the biggest classics in the spring of 2020.

According to Het Nieuwsblad, Van Avermaet has been off the bike for the past six weeks, following the World Championships road race in Yorkshire on September 29.

Van Avermaet has competed in the Tour of Oman as the second race of the season every February since 2010 (except 2012), and before that, until the Tour of Qatar was discontinued after the 2016 event, the Spanish Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana He had competed in.

However, it appears that the Belgian will withdraw from the Tour of Oman in favor of staying in Europe for the start of the 2020 season. However, Valenciana is still likely to be his first race, and according to CCC sport director Valerio Piva, the Volta Ao Algarve in late February could follow.

After breaking his ankle in a mountain bike training accident in November 2016, van Avermaat subsequently won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February and March 2017, Strade Bianche (Strade Bianche) in February and March, E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem in a little over two weeks between late March and mid-April, Tour of Flanders, Paris- Roubaix (Paris-Roubaix), Piva enjoyed "his best spring ever.

"We want to simulate that now," Piva told nieuwsblad.be on Wednesday. After consulting with his trainer, Max Testa, we decided to take a long rest and restart slowly"

.

"Greg knows the importance of rest, but he is very driven and has the disposition to forget about resting. We don't want Greg to get in too much shape so that he can peak at the Classic," he explained.

Van Avermaat said he recently started running again after taking two additional weeks of rest on top of his normal four-week break.

"I did some walking, but the goal was to take a long break and completely reset my body. I needed it after a tough season," the Olympic road race champion told nieuwsblad.be. 'But you can't rush it. There are still more than three months until Omloop het nieuwsblad.

Juan Avermaat is heading to the CCC's December training camp in Spain a week earlier than his teammates and will likely return home a week early in time for the birth of his second child.

He will then head to Tenerife in early January for a high-altitude training camp, which will be Van Avermaat's first off-season.

"Greg has always been very good in the first race in early February the last few years, but it should actually be a preparation race; in 2019 he was very good in the Classics, from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad to E3 Harelbæk (Binkbank Classic), although he was very good in the Classic, After that he was a bit quiet," Piva said, adding that Van Avermaert finished 10th in Flanders and 12th in Roubaix this year.

"With this new approach, we want to prevent him from getting back into form too quickly."