{"id":388092,"date":"2026-01-04T18:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388092\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T18:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:28:11","slug":"visma-lease-a-bike-gives-another-wout-van-aert-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388092\/","title":{"rendered":"Visma – Lease a Bike gives another Wout van Aert update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former (feels weird to say that) pro Mike Woods summed it up best earlier this year when he had to quit the Tour de Suisse. \u201cCycling is a cruel, cruel sport,\u201d he said<\/a>. A roller coaster of highs and lows. Something that Wout van Aert has certainly experienced his fair share. And it just happened again to him.<\/p>\n

A condensed \u2018cross season made even shorter<\/p>\n

Van Aert\u2019s brief \u2018cross season came to an abrupt end on Friday. A crash during the snowy Zilvermeercross in Mol forced the Belgian to abandon the race. It was shaping up to be quite the day as well. Van Aert and world champ Mathieu van der Poel were having an amazing duel, until disaster struck. Wout van Aert hit the deck on a slippery curve. It was another unlucky day for the talented rider, who has had his fair share of crashes and mechanicals of late.<\/p>\n

Van Aert went to the hospital, where tests revealed an ankle fracture. \u201cOf course I am very disappointed to have to end my cyclocross season like this,\u201d Van Aert said after the race. \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

Successful surgery<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the 31-year-old pro underwent surgery. In a follow-up tweet, Visma \u2013 Lease a Bike confirmed the operation was successful<\/a>. Although the team did not yet clarify when he will return to training, sports doctor Tom Teulingkx, who has worked with Van Aert in the past, seemed somewhat optimistic about his recovery time.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Sporza, he said, \u201cIn these kinds of crashes, you often see a severe ankle distortion. That type of injury is actually one of the most common in sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ankle relies on a complex ligament network, he explained, and when these ligaments are overstretched or torn, swelling usually occurs. In some cases, the injury also causes a fracture. Teulingkx added that when damage is limited\u2014such as a small bone fragment breaking off\u2014surgical fixation with a plate or screw can speed recovery, similar to treatment for collarbone fractures.<\/p>\n

Riding sooner than later<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everything goes well, he could be back on the bike within a few weeks,\u201d Teulingkx added. \u201cI don\u2019t think his spring on the road will necessarily be compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happened to Wout van Aert at Dendermonde?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This would be good news for Van Aert, given how often his season has been derailed by crashes. In 2024, he had that awful crash at Dwars Door Vlaanderen, which ended his Classics hopes and began a long recovery period. He got back to form and was doing great at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, winning multiple stages and holding two leaders\u2019 jerseys, only to crash out again and hurt his knee.<\/p>\n

After a spring with so many close wins, he finally took a memorable victory in 2025 at the Strade Bianche stage of the Giro. He followed up with an even more beautiful win on the final stage of the Tour de France. There, he attacked none other than Tadej Poga\u010dar on Montmartre to take a special dub on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es.<\/p>\n

If anyone knows about comebacks, it\u2019s Van Aert. Hopefully this will be the year we cycling fans see him take a big win in a race like Paris\u2013Roubaix, something that has thus far eluded him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former (feels weird to say that) pro Mike Woods summed it up best earlier this year when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,163530,5718,13633,82,10761,12290],"class_list":{"0":"post-388092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-exact-cross-mol-2025","12":"tag-injury","13":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-visma-lease-a-bike","16":"tag-wout-van-aert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}