‘He’s barely fallen behind’ – Wout van Aert ramps up training hours as injury recovery progresses positively

Visma-Lease a Bike have provided a positive update on Wout van Aert, as the Belgian star continues his recovery from a fractured ankle that he sustained on January 2.

With surgery required following his cyclo-cross crash at Exact Cross Mol, it seemed as though the start of Van Aert’s road season could be affected due to the injury. However, it’s largely been good news coming out of Visma regarding Van Aert’s condition since his time off the bike was much shorter than feared.

“I texted Wout a few times and called him, but we knew what had to happen from Mol onward. We ultimately had to cancel his cyclo-cross program, and having to forego the Belgian Championships was really painful for him,” said team coach Jan Boven to Wielerflits on Sunday.

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“You just don’t have a choice, and he was back on the bike fairly quickly. It’s definitely faster than expected, because he was back on the bike just three days after his surgery.”

After turning up at Visma’s media day last Tuesday in a boot, where Van Aert told the press how “if I was a runner or anything else, I would be out for months,” he’s been getting more active and intense in his training rides in southern Spain.

According to Strava, he clocked in three and a half hours of riding on Wednesday last week, an hour more the day after, and put in his biggest work since the crash on Friday with an 184-kilometre training ride across six hours at an average speed of 31kph.

“We expected him to be able to train a bit on the rollers again after a week, but he’s already done another six-hour training session in Spain,” added Boven. “I spoke with him at length yesterday, and he’s feeling great.

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“It also helps that his inactivity didn’t last long. He’s barely fallen behind and he can definitely look forward to the spring classics.”

Van Aert is set to start his season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 28, before racing Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo, and then heading to his favoured Monument duo at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

With his coaches impressed with his progress and his teammates shocked at his presence at the media day, Van Aert is hoping that the crash in Mol can be looked at as little more than a bump in the road come the Classics.