Several weeks of rehab ahead – teammate Amorison luckier
Landbouwkrediet rider Bert De Waele is recovering after he had a knee surgery on Wednesday. De Waele crashed hard in the Tour of Belgium, making a surgery necessary. Sporza reported that the rider has already left the hospital.
De Waele has to take a full week of complete rest, before he can start his rehab training. De Waele’s teammate Frédéric Amorison was luckier. He crashed hard in training and was unable to train for over a week. But X-rays revealed nothing broken in his ankle and his hip.
De Waele enjoyed a good season so far that started with a second place overall in the Tour du Haut Var in February. One of his biggest results so far was the fourth place in the Amstel Gold race, behind Philippe Gilbert, Ryder Hesjedal and Enrico Gasparotto. De Waele managed to outsprint Roman Kreuziger and Damiano Cunego in the Netherlands.
De Waele had crashed in May, but continued racing. Frequent knee problems finally forced him off the bike during stage two of the Tour of Wallonia, requiring the surgery.
Amorison also had a good season, with a fourth place in the final classification of the Driedaagse De Panne – Koksijde. Earlier in the month he took his first race win of the season, with the Dwars door het Hageland.
This was in fact his first since his first pro season in 2002, where he won the Sparkassen Giro Bochum and the first stage of the Tour of Wallonia for the Lotto – Adecco team. He switched to Quick Step – Davitamon in 2003 and to Davitamon – Lotto in 2005 before joining Landbouwkrediet in 2006.