Tom Crabbe's 2026 season comes to an end several weeks ahead of schedule. The rider, in light of what he has achieved from February to now, can easily be counted among the most brilliant revelations of this season. Winner of a stage at Etoile de Besseges and Vuelta Andalucia and three stages at the latest Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye, the twenty-one-year-old Belgian from Team Flanders-Baloise has been forced to prematurely end his year due to persistent knee pain.

Specifically, the ambitious twenty-one-year-old Belgian had to throw in the towel in the face of iliotibial band syndrome (also known as "runner's knee"), an overuse inflammation on the outer part of the knee that in recent times has limited him to the point of forcing him to withdraw from the last races of September and October.

"At the moment I'm walking a lot, combining this activity with physiotherapy sessions," the native of Jette told Sporza.

"It is difficult to determine when I will be able to return to racing. In the best case scenario, I could still have thought about participating in the Eneco Tour, but the question is: in what condition? For this reason, I prefer to give up my place to a rider who is at 100% fitness and conclude my road season now," explained Crabbe, clearly disappointed at not being able to say goodbye by racing with his teammates and the squad that allowed him to grow and gain the spotlight this season.

"I'm sorry to have to conclude in this way the beautiful period spent with Team Flanders-Baloise. In Christophe Sercu's squad I had the opportunity to grow as a rider and this resulted in my move to Pinarello-Q36.5 next year," concluded the young Belgian, whose hope, before wearing the colors of the Swiss team and racing alongside Tom Pidcock, is to return to racing competitively to take part in the beloved Six Days of Ghent scheduled for November 17-22.