Orica-GreenEdge cyclist Simon Gerrans is hopeful of making a return at the Volta a Catalunya later this month, despite fracturing his elbow in Italy on Saturday.
In Gerrans' first professional race since the 2014 World Championship after breaking his collarbone during training in December, the Australian landed awkwardly in a crash at the Strade Bianche and suffered a small fracture in the radial head of his elbow.
Gerrans, who missed the Tour Down Under in January due to collarbone surgery, continued to race but later withdrew after x-rays confirmed an elbow injury.
However, the three-time Tour de France stage winner still intends to compete at UCI World Tour event the Volta a Catalunya, which is scheduled to get underway in the Spanish seaside town of Calella on March 23.
"Basically, the doctor at the hospital said we should put it in a cast for about three weeks and that I need to keep the elbow immobile while it heals," Gerrans wrote on his official website.
"But funnily enough, it's an injury I have had in the past. I had the same sort of fracture to this same elbow in the 2010 Tour de France so it's not something I am unfamiliar with.
"Back then I was about ten days in a cast and I rode the home trainer nearly that entire period and then I was back on the road pretty quickly.
"I am really hoping it's going to be a similar scenario here, where I will keep the cast on my arm for ten days or so, where I plan to spend quite a bit of time on the home trainer and then I hope to be back on the road a few days prior to Catalunya and still racing there."