{"id":507616,"date":"2026-02-27T13:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507616\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T13:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:36:11","slug":"he-was-in-intensive-care-for-12-days-and-was-ready-to-finish-second-at-the-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507616\/","title":{"rendered":"He was in intensive care for 12 days and was ready to finish second at the Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The defining moment of his career remains his victory at Strade Bianche in 2018, when he conquered brutal conditions to claim a triumph that shaped his trajectory on the roads of Tuscany. Since then, he has been a constant presence in the biggest one-day races, repeatedly making it into the decisive phases of the Tour of Flanders and the Amstel Gold Race.<\/p>\n

The Belgian rider will be sidelined for a long period, estimated at 16 weeks, after undergoing surgery for an inguinal hernia. \u201cI was in a lot of pain, so I\u2019m happy they removed it,\u201d Benoot told Sporza<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s good that a cause has been found for my issues. Now a long rehabilitation awaits me.\u201dBenoot hopes to receive the green light later this month as he works toward one of the objectives he set with the team for his season, the Tour de France<\/a>. \u201cOriginally it was in my program and I would love to be there as well. But it\u2019s still too early to say that it will be a target.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, he is limited to 300 metres of walking per hour. \u201cIf I get the green light on Tuesday, I can start rehabilitation with the physiotherapist. Normally, I should be able to train properly again in a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tiesj<\/p>\n

Tiesj Benoot, here still in Visma colours, at the 2025 Tour de France<\/p>\n

An inspiration called Jonas Vingegaard<\/p>\n

Wout van Aert, his former teammate and close friend, sent him a gift to lift his spirits as he goes through this difficult period away from the bike. \u201cI\u2019ve already eaten quite a bit of chocolate,\u201d Benoot laughs. \u201cThat\u2019s a little less ideal for me as a rider. I\u2019m going to spend the longest period of my career without a bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet there is both disappointment and hope in the words of the 31-year-old rider. \u201cI\u2019ve already swallowed the disappointment of having to miss the Spring. But I\u2019m motivated to come back at least at the same level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Classics are out, but the Tour de France remains possible. He believes everything is still within reach and points to Jonas Vingegaard as an example, after the Dane crashed at Itzulia Basque Country<\/a>, recovered and made it to the start of the Grand Boucle. \u201cHe was in intensive care for 12 days and was ready to finish second at the Tour about eight weeks later. I don\u2019t compare myself to that, but I hope to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can ride for two or three weeks without problems, we\u2019ll be able to better estimate where I stand. I\u2019ve ridden the Tour nine times, so I know it\u2019s no gift if you\u2019re only at 80 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Tiesj Benoot knows he will have to watch his favourite races from the sofa at home, the events where he feels most at ease. \u201cAlthough that might be even harder in the Spring, because those are the races I train for all winter and where my heart truly lies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The defining moment of his career remains his victory at Strade Bianche in 2018, when he conquered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,176987,6495,85,176986,2845],"class_list":["post-507616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-decathlon-cma-cgm-team","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-sports","tag-tiesj-benoot","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507616","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=507616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}