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BRUSSELS — Two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar was expected to travel home Monday after undergoing surgery on his fractured left wrist in Belgium.
The 24-year-old Slovenian rider’s team said in a statement late Sunday that surgery to treat a scaphoid fracture in his left wrist went well and that Pogacar, who was injured in a crash during the one-day classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège, would now start “recovery and rehabilitation.”
Pogacar was treated by a hand surgeon at a hospital in Genk immediately after his crash.
The UAE Team Emirates did not say how long Pogacar would be sidelined or whether the injury would affect his preparations for the Tour de France, which starts in July.
Following his wins at Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne, Pogacar aimed to become only the third male rider to seal a hat trick of the Ardennes classics but had to abandon after 53 miles of the 160-mile race. The race was won by world champion Remco Evenepoel, who put on an impressive attacking display to win cycling’s oldest classic for the second year in a row with a solo effort.
Before his crash, Pogacar had been untouchable on all grounds this year, also dominating the field at the Tour of Flanders.
His first win at the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday marked his sixth race victory of 2023 — to go with six stage wins at the weeklong Paris-Nice and Tour of Andalucia races — a streak that is drawing comparisons with cycling great Eddy Merckx.
Pogacar had planned to stop racing after Liège-Bastogne-Liège to recover and was not scheduled to compete at the Giro d’Italia starting May 6. His next big goal is the Tour, where he will try to restart his dominance after being dethroned last year by Jonas Vingegaard.
The Tour starts July 1 from the Spanish city of Bilbao.