Kocjan - I'll be back in a month

Jure Kocjan has had to endure a tough start to his Euskaltel career. The Slovenian hasn't raced since abandoning Paris-Nice in early March, and now we've finally been able to figure out why.

"I've been struggling with a virus infection", he revealed to Basque Cycling News. "The recuperation has taken longer than I expected it would. I rested for ten days and then resumed training. But after three days I felt very bad again. A 40km ride felt like 240 kilometres, so I rested for another ten days. But this week I've been able to train normally again.

"I've done numerous tests, and I'll have the results back from those in a few days. Hopefully we'll figure out what the problem was. I hope to be back racing in a month".

Beside being sat on the sidelines by illness, Kocjan says the start to his adventure in the Basque Country has been good as "the team feels like a family and my team-mates are all very friendly. To begin with, at the first races, I was actually surprised at how nice they were!".

Since then, though, it's safe to assume that not everyone has been so happy at the Euskaltel headquarters recently due to Alexander Serebryakov's doping positive.

"I was in shock when I read the news a few days ago", he said. "I hope he'll prove his innocence".

Photo: Euskaltel Euskadi