{"id":387870,"date":"2026-01-03T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T00:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/387870\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T00:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T00:08:08","slug":"snowy-mol-crash-ends-season-for-wout-van-aert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/387870\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowy Mol crash ends season for Wout van Aert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zilvermeercross in Mol was <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/incredible-van-der-poel-and-van-aert-duel-marred-by-brutal-crash\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">giving fans everything they\u2019d dreamed of all fall<\/a>, until it took it all away. Wout van Aert looked like he\u2019d elevated his game, finally giving \u2018cross fans the Big Two battle they\u2019d been craving. Add in some absolutely wild conditions, mixing snow in with the sand, and it was looking like 2026 was off to the best start ever.<\/p>\n<p>Then Mathieu van der Poel crashed. The world champion was quickly up on his bike and moving again.<\/p>\n<p>Then Wout van Aert crashed. The Belgian was less lucky than his competitor and was forced out of the race.<\/p>\n<p>Brewing \u2018Cross battle ends early<\/p>\n<p>A trip to the hospital for a worryingly swollen ankle confirmed the worst: van Aert\u2019s cyclocross season is over.<\/p>\n<p>Team Visma \u2013 Lease A Bike confirmed the news. Van Aert suffered a sprained ankle and small fracture. That takes him out of Belgian championships and ends <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/will-he-or-wont-he-belgian-coach-opens-up-about-wout-van-aert-and-cross-worlds\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">any debate over whether or not the cross and road star will challenge van der Poel at world championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course I am very disappointed to have to end my cyclocross season like this,\u201d Van Aert says. \u201cI was feeling better and better, including today in Mol. I was really looking forward to the race in Zonhoven and the Belgian Championships. But my focus will now be on recovery and, later on, the preparation of the road season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another injury for Wout van Aert<\/p>\n<p>This latest injury sets up Wout van Aert for another round in a<a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/dont-call-it-a-comeback-for-van-aert-there-have-been-too-many\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> series of comeback\u2019s the star has already lost count of<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian\u2019s 2024 season was derailed early on in his Classics campaign by a rough crash at at <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/wout-van-aert-opens-up-about-horrific-crash-in-new-documentary\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dwars door Vlaanderen<\/a>. That put him off the bike for weeks and <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/wout-van-aert-opens-up-about-horrific-crash-in-new-documentary\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">inspired a mini-documentary of its own<\/a>. After winning bronze at the Olympic Games in Paris, van Aert would crash again at Vuelta Espana and be forced to end his season early.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, van Aert crashed hard at Le Tour. That significant leg injury required multiple surguries to correct, <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/after-insufficient-surgery-corrected-in-belgium-wout-van-aert-heads-home\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">including a surgeries to correct the initial surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zilvermeercross in Mol was giving fans everything they\u2019d dreamed of all fall, until it took it all away.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,208028,85,13093,58412,208029],"class_list":{"0":"post-387870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-mol","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-spotlight","14":"tag-wout-van-aert","15":"tag-zilvermeercross"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}