Wout van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) looks set to miss the Dublin round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup next month. The injury he sustained during his crash at La Vuelta in September has delayed his plans to resume racing.
Though his specific race schedule has not yet been set out, he plans to take a conservative approach in planning his cyclocross racing return this winter, according to his team.
And that, understandable, reluctance to jump back into action too soon, and risk aggravating the knee injury he sustained in his crash, looks set to come at the expense of racing in Dublin, as he did two years ago.
Jan Boven, a sports director with Visma-Lease a Bike, said Van Aert would only return to cyclocross after a team camp was concluded on December 19th; a date that would clearly rule him out of the December 1st showdown at Abbottstown in west Dublin.
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“Wout is now leaving for Spain for two and a half weeks to train,” Boven told Het Nieuwsblad. “After that we will sit down together, but he will only start again after the first team training camp that ends on December 19th.”
Boven noted Van Aert started his cyclocross season in early December last year, which was under consideration this time around. But the return he would get from coming back to racing in early December is limited, in the eyes of the team.
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“That period was also an option now, but then you only have the races in Dublin and Sardinia. Those are long journeys for one race,” Boven said of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup rounds off mainland Europe on December 1st and 8th.
While any rider's racing plans can change - especially when they are returning from injury - these remarks appear to rule out starting in Dublin on December 1st.
Though Van Aert broke no bones in his crash on stage 16 of La Vuelta on September 3rd, he suffered very deep cuts, especially to his right knee.
The injury was more complicated than first believed and he was forced to spend 10 days in bed, with no movement of his leg whatever, such as the damage. He only returned to training outside exactly one month after the crash.
However, the fact he is even planning to ride a cyclocross campaign this winter – whenever his season might start – is positive news from the Belgian’s camp.
At the time of his Vuelta crash, Van Aert was leading the points classification and had won three stages; his first wins since a bad crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen at the end of March.
