It was announced on Monday that the Vuelta a San Juan will not be held due to a coronavirus outbreak, leaving Quick Step-Alfa Vinyl as one of the teams that will have to rework their plans and race schedules for the start of the 2022 season.

Remco Evenepoel was scheduled to start the season in Argentina and then compete in the Volta ao Algarve, but the cancellation of the Vuelta a San Juan has forced the Belgian to rework his schedule.

According to Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab), Patrick Lefevre, manager of Quick Step Alphavinil, is the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, which will be held February 2-6 by Evenpoel? UAE tour on February 20-26, suggesting that the campaign could begin with a tour of the UAE on February 20-26.

"Where to start is not clear at the moment, Valencia at the beginning of February is an option, same for the UAE tour at the end of February. Either of these two. Or both," Lefebvre told Het Nieuwsblad.

In the UAE Tour, Evenpole will face Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) in the first stage race of his career. Pogachar won last year's UAE Tour and will start the 2022 season in this event.

Lefebvre described the UAE Tour as "more or less a world championship for Tadey Pogachar and his UAE Team Emirates. The sheikhs would rather he win there than win the Tour [de France]."

"It's his first World Tour race and he has a good group of riders. Then Lemko will know right away where he stands among the other riders: there are two stages with uphill finishes and a time trial."

"I'd rather win the Tour de France than win the Tour de France,"

said Lemko.

Quick Step will review the changed race schedule at its training camp in Calpe, which runs from Thursday through January 14. Lefebvre suggested that the Tour of Antalya in Turkey (February 10-13) and the Tour of Oman (February 10-15) could be added to Quick Step's program, but the team confirmed that it is not interested in the five Challenge Mallorca series races in early February.

"It's a lot of work to get the trucks there, especially with the logistics."

"I'm sure we'll have lots of discussions with the riders during training camp about the program.

Sport Director Klaas Rodevik told Het Nieuwsblad that Quick Step's first thought is to ensure that the riders selected for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Cune Brussel Cune arrive in time for Belgium's opening weekend at the end of February. He explained that the first thought is to arrive in time for the opening weekend of the Belgian season at the end of February.

"It remains to be seen if more races will be dropped," Lodewijk said.

"The first condition is that the riders competing in the Belgian opening weekend will have enough race days. But the new puzzle has to be just right for everyone."