Ten months after his harrowing crash left him with a fractured pelvis, ruptured ACL, MCL and meniscus in his knee, Danish rider Michael Valgren is ready to return to bike racing. On Tuesday, he will participate in the Region Pays de la Loire Tour, a 2.1 four-day race in France. Valgren is registered with the EF-Nippo-Development Team and will line up with his former WorldTour teammates at EF Education-EasyPost. UCI rules allow teams to mix their line-ups between related teams, which is something Valgren is taking advantage of for his return.
“I am just looking forward to getting back in the bunch and having a good week and enjoying it. There won’t be any pressure. I will just ride into it and get used to it and the speed and being with my strong teammates,” Valgren said.
The racing in the north-west of France will start on Tuesday, April 4 with a flat 134.4 stage from Saint-Nazaire to Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. Next up is a 123km stage from Clisson to Le Lion-d’Angers, then on Thursday it is a climb heavy 152km stage from Baugé-en-Anjou to Mayenne before the race finishes on Friday with 130km from Sablé-sur-Sarthe to Le Mans. Valgren will be racing alongside teammates Ben Healy, James Shaw, Georg Steinhauser, Julius van den Berg and Marijn van den Berg.
“My numbers are really good,” said Valgren. “Obviously training and racing are very different, so having good numbers doesn’t mean that you are going to go fast in racing, but we made a really good plan, and I have been doing that to perfection.”
The 31-year-old last took on this race in 2015, before his successful stint with Amstel Gold Race and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and is now eager for his return.
“It feels really good to be a bike rider again,” Valgren said. “This sport is amazing. You sometimes take these things for granted. That is one of the good things about this injury of mine. I have been away for so long. I missed this.”
EF Education-EasyPost (formerly Cannondale-Drapac) is an Israel-Luxembourgish WorldTour cycling team formed in the wake of the merger of the UltraSports and Pro Cycling teams. The team’s major appearances in 2017 include the UCI WorldTour, Vuelta Ciclista a Espana, Cheung Kong Tour of Chongqing, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour Colombia and Volta ao Algarve. EF Education-EasyPost has put in impressive performances, such as when their rider Dani Moreno won the Giro dell’Emilia and Alberto Bettiol won the GP Industria & Artigianato.
Michael Valgren, 31 year-old Danish rider, has an impressive list of achievements in his career. He has participated in numerous races, including the Amstel Gold Race, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Tour of Denmark, Criterium du Dauphine, Volta a Catalunya, Vuelta a Espana and Tour of Britain. He has a few podium finishes to his name, including a third-place finish in the 2018 Amstel Gold Race. He has also had success in one-day events, with a fourth-place finish in the 2018 Tour of Flanders, along with stage wins in the Paris-Nice, Tour de Luxembourg and Tour of Denmark. After his unfortunate crash in June of 2022, he is returning to bike racing, prepared to make his mark once again.
