Israel Startup Nation's Ben Hermans will return from injury at Tuesday's Vuelta a Burgos after recovering sufficiently from a broken shoulder and broken collarbone sustained in a crash at the Tour Down Under in January.

The 34-year-old Belgian rider was unable to race in February and March due to injury, but much of Hermans' recovery coincides with Pro Cycling's mandatory suspension from competition due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has kept him out of the race for most of the first half of the year. He will join the peloton.

Hermans told Belgian media over the weekend that despite the still-present threat of COVID-19 infection, he has no major concerns about his trip to Spain and is just looking forward to racing again.

"I think I should be more afraid of going to shopping centers than going abroad and distancing myself from everyone," he told Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday. 'Since 2014, I have always carried a foam container of disinfectant that kills even more bacteria and viruses than alcohol hand gels,' he said. It kills even more bacteria than alcohol hand gels. I sanitize my hands every day, everywhere I go. If I don't want to get sick, I have no other choice."

"I like racing in Burgos. I like racing in Burgos and I always do well. But now we have a special situation. At the moment it looks OK, but I'm flying to Bilbao on Monday morning, so I'm waiting for the UCI to decide if it's safe or not."

"I'd really like to drive, but then I'd lose two days," Hellmans continued.

"It's not that I'm afraid of flying, it's just that I think it's safer now. I used to come back five times out of ten with a cold."

Life at home also made Hellmans' situation more complicated in that his wife was about to give birth.

"I don't want to be racing in Burgos and thinking about the baby coming next week. I hope it will be born by Monday," he said on Saturday.

However, the team announced on social media that Hermans' wife gave birth to their second child on Sunday.