Caspar Asgreen was active in the first group sprint of the Volta ao Algarve and the summit finish of stage 2, and led the breakaway chase on stage 3.

Showing little sign of the fatigue syndrome that ended his 2022 season in mid-July, the Dane is making the most of every opportunity in the race against time to get in top form for the classics.

"It's been kind of a long road. Last year I didn't run much for four months, so I started later than normal."

"But it seems to be going well so far. But it seems to be going well so far.

Fatigue syndrome has its roots in a crash Asgreen suffered in the Tour de Suisse. Asgreen struggled through the opening week of the Tour de France, which started in his native Denmark, but it soon became clear that the injury had not fully healed.

A month later, it was announced that Asgreen's season was over. Due to fatigue syndrome, he was unable to even recover from his low-intensity efforts to resume training.

"The fatigue syndrome was secondary. The primary problem was my knees. The reason I had fatigue syndrome was because my body was very tired from all the hard training I had done for the Tour.

"Once I took a break, the fatigue syndrome went away. But my biggest concern was still my knees. I lost a lot of muscle mass in my quads. My main job was to retrain my quads and get my strength back. I spent a lot of time in the gym [then] I was able to resume training in October, moving from rehab to regular strength training and regular training on the bike.

When it comes to winter training, athletes often refer to the season just ended as a sort of "base." Thus, while Asgreen had plenty of time from October to the present, he had a lot to make up for in terms of being truly race-ready for 2023.

In the Challenge Mallorca series, after finishing outside the time limit at the Trofeo Andrax and 127th at the Trofeo Palma, time in Portugal, where the Figueira Classic was held prior to Volta, provided an important foundation.

"Obviously I would like to be a little bit further ahead than I am, but we are getting there," Asgreen said.

So expectations are limited for the so-called opening weekend in Belgium next week, but for the main classics period, which includes monuments such as the Tour de Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, held in late March and early April.

"Hard work is everything. There are no shortcuts. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I think we will be fully fit by the time we get to Flanders and Roubaix."