Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) has cast doubt on whether his knee injury from his "hard to take" crash at La Vuelta will allow him to race the cyclocross season, though he has not given up hope.
The Belgian was leading the points and mountains classifications, and had won three stages, at the Spanish Grand Tour when he crashed on a descent on stage 16. He appeared to hit a rock face at the roadside and badly damaged his knee, which force him out of the race on the spot.
He has now describe his bitter disappointment at being forced out of the race - especially after a crash wiped out much of his early season - and believe he was in his best form since the 2022 Tour de France, when he held the race lead and won three stages and the green jersey.
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“Initially it looked like I suffered a major blow when I crashed, but no fracture,” Van Aert has said of his Vuelta carsh. "But on returning to Belgium, a huge bruise was detected.
"Fortunately it was not on the kneecap itself but in a vulnerable spot on the joint, and it needed stitches. That explains the pain I felt. It was tough for me to move, all my muscles were weakened and I had to spend 10 days in bed without moving my leg.
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“There was a risk of infection, too, so we had to treat it quite aggressively with antibiotics to avoid having another operation. That was a big setback.”
However, he said his lucky his "cartilage, kneecap and ligaments are all intact" and he believed that would help him return to cycling faster. However, he also said he had had too many crashes, especially as crashed at Dwars door Vlaanderen in March, suffering multiple broken bones.
“It’s important to relativise everything, it’s not been my best season, and I’ve had a lot of setbacks. But I’m very proud of what I could do," he said, adding the cyclocross season was unclear for now.
“Nothing’s certain yet, and I will see how I feel, it would be a bit crazy to talk about that now,” he said. “The only problem is that running and jumping could be a bit tricky at first, but that’s my objective.
“Whatever happens I want to start 2025 with new goals and to perform as well as possible in the classics. That’s my main aim for now.”
