Sicard comeback put on hold

There seems to be no end to Romain Sicard's injury nightmare. The 23-year-old was supposed to be back competing these days - reports in June said he'd likely be back in late July/early August - but that's now out of the question as he's still struggling to regain full strength in his weaker leg stemming from a mysterious knee injury sustained in pre-season. Originally it was thought his maladjusted cleats on his new racing shoes were the source of his problems - something which has since been discarded. At the time of writing no one has been able to come up with a reasonable explanation to this muscular imbalance, and cyclingnews.com today reports he's still some way off being declared fit to race. "Our goal now is to get him back in competition before the end of the season", Euskaltel DS Josu Larrazabal told the website. "He's feeling better now than he did a few weeks ago so it's a possibility." The Vuelta is thus obviously out of the question, but at least he's back training. Last week he spent two hours a day on his bike according to Larrazabal, and the DS praised his young charge's way of dealing with his prolonged stay on the sidelines: "In everything he does you can see Romain is a world champion".