Following his abstention from last month's Giro d'Italia due to COVID-19, Remco Evenpoel is preparing to return to racing at the Tour de Suisse, which starts June 11.

The Belgian has fully recovered from the virus that caused him to abandon the Giro from the front of the nine-day race, and his first race back will be in Switzerland, where he won last summer's closing time trial.

Evenpoel's June schedule calls for him to tackle the eight-day Tour de Suisse, which includes time trials at both ends of the race, before returning home to defend his Belgian time trial title in Herzele on June 22.

Three days later, he will take on a road race in Izegem, followed by a two-week high-altitude training camp in Val di Fassa in the Italian Dolomites.

His Tour de France debut was definitely ruled out, as Evenepoel was forced to withdraw from the Giro, his main goal this season. Instead, he will prepare for his world title defense in Glasgow in the 271-km men's road race on the first weekend of the Road World Championships on August 6.

"Figuring out the path for the rest of the season has been quite a challenge. My main goal this year is the Giro d'Italia, and what happened was really unfortunate."

"I think it's a perfect start in Switzerland and to be able to come back to the race that I remember winning last year in the time trial, to defend my TT title and to see what I can do in road racing, and from there to have a good leg to the Belgian championships. Hopefully I will be able to do that."

"Then I can spend some weeks at altitude in the beautiful area around Val di Fassa. I've enjoyed training there before and it's a great place with the added benefit of being at altitude. After winning the opening time trial in Abruzzo and taking the Maria Rosa early on, he led the race by winning the 35km time trial in Cesena on stage 9 by a similar, albeit smaller margin than many expected.

That evening, Sourdal-Quick-Step announced that he had contracted COVID-19 and would miss the Giro. Two days later, four of his teammates would leave the race before stage 11.

Evenpoel will return to racing on a TT bike in the 12.7 km opening time trial of the Tour de Suisse in Einsiedeln. The Tour de Suisse route includes three tough mountain stages in Villars-sur-Ollon, Leukerbad, and Le Punt, and concludes with a 25.7 km time trial from St. Gallen to Abtville.

During the week, Evenpoel will try to retain his Belgian time trial title four days after the race ends.

He is not expected to return to Spain to defend his Vuelta a España title in August, which Soudal-Quick Step team boss Patrick Lefebvre denied shortly after Evenpoel's Vuelta abandonment.

"He has already won the Vuelta. He's already won the Vuelta. Moreover, this time it will be very heavy again and will require a special preparation."

"He has already won the Vuelta, and he has already won the Vuelta.

Instead, Evenpoel's fall could see him take on a series of one-day races, including the Donostia San Sebastián Classicoa in late July, the GP duo of Quebec and Montreal in September, and Il Lombardia in Italy.