{"id":416239,"date":"2026-01-17T23:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/416239\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T23:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:12:10","slug":"two-weeks-post-fracture-wout-van-aert-logs-six-hour-training-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/416239\/","title":{"rendered":"Two weeks post-fracture, Wout Van Aert logs six-hour training ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van Aert showing remarkable resilience and is now training with Matteo Jorgenson and others in Spain.<\/p>\n

\"Wout<\/p>\n

Wout van Aert pictured during the Visma Lease a Bike team presentation in Alicante, Spain, Tuesday 13 January 2026. (Photo: David Pintens\/Belga Mag\/Belga via AFP)<\/p>\n

Updated January 17, 2026 12:51PM<\/p>\n

Wout Van Aert<\/a> has confounded expectations in his recovery from a fracture ankle, and now looks well on track for an inspired classics campaign.<\/p>\n

The Belgian star crashed heavily<\/a> in the Zilvermeercross in Mol on January 2 while putting pressure on Mathieu van der Poel. Diagnosed later that day with the fracture, he underwent a successful operation in Herentals on January 3 to stabilize the injury.<\/p>\n

Sports doctor Tom Teulingkx, who worked with the Belgian in the past, predicted at the time that Van Aert would be sidelined for quite some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the most favorable scenario, Wout could be back on the bike within a few weeks, depending on the severity of the fracture,\u201d he told Sporza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However Van Aert has stunned with the speed of his return.<\/p>\n

On Monday, just nine days after his surgery, he uploaded an outdoor ride to Strava<\/a> entitled \u2018Gewonnen maandag (\u2018Won Monday\u2019). He averaged a solid 32.3km per hour for 33.39 kilometers.<\/p>\n

He also did an indoor session, with photos from that revealing a lot of bruising to his foot as well as a badly swollen ankle. The images included a photo of the screw in his joint.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Since then Van Aert has hit the accelerator. On Tuesday he clocked up a spin of just over 59.21km near Benidorm in Spain. He did 108km Wednesday, then joined Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> teammates Matteo Jorgenson, Louis Barr\u00e9, Timo Kielich and Bruno Armirail on Thursday for a 144.3km slog.<\/p>\n

The group clocked up almost 3000 meters of elevation gain in that time, a real test of his ankle.<\/p>\n

Friday was more difficult again; Van Aert completed a six hour spin, racking up 3,296 vertical meters over a distance of 184km.<\/p>\n

As for Saturday, he backed off with a ride of just over 31km, but is likely to ramp things up again in the days ahead.<\/p>\n

\u2018Seize every opportunity that comes my way\u2019
\n\"(L-R)Van Aert was wearing a joint-stabilizing boot when attending the Visma-Lease a Bike team presentation in La Nucia near Alicante, eastern Spain earlier this week. (Photo: Jose Jordan \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Van Aert\u2019s rapid return has stunned many. Teulingkx will be amongst those, with his predictions shortly after the fracture very different to what has actually happened since.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the most favorable scenario, Wout could be back on the bike within a few weeks, depending on the severity of the fracture,\u201d he said back then.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s far, far ahead of that timeline, making what Teulingkx said next in the interview even more interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cNature has to take its course, but I think his spring road season is probably not at risk,\u201d he stated. \u201cIf I look at the images, it could still turn out better than expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s indeed what has happened, keeping Van Aert in the frame for a serious push for career-first wins in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the spring, I want to be there from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad all the way through to Roubaix,\u201d he said this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to show myself everywhere and seize every opportunity that comes my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given what he has been able thus far, Van Aert remains on track for a big, big spring campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Van Aert showing remarkable resilience and is now training with Matteo Jorgenson and others in Spain. Wout van…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,72751,82711,54267],"class_list":["post-416239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-tag-wout-van-aert","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416239","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=416239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}