Van Aert Back on Bike and Eyeing Cyclocross after Vuelta Crash

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Wout van Aert is back in the saddle and pedaling his way toward a streamlined cyclocross season.

Visma-Lease a Bike’s disaster-stalked star last week logged consistent miles for the first time since he smashed his knee at the Vuelta a España.

The 30-year-old pieced together a 320km total last week across a series of road and gravel rides.

It makes for encouraging signs for Van Aert. His devastating crash six weeks ago at the Vuelta put him in hospital for weeks and cast him onto crutches for a period after.

“That crash was a serious impact and I was in the hospital for a while. I couldn’t move my knee and had to lie in the chair a lot,” Van Aert told Belgian media last month.

“The wound had to be stitched, and the knee is inconvenient. I was not allowed to move my leg for a long time,” he said.

“Then we found that there was also severe damage to the knee joint. A dent, as it were, on the side. That explained all the pain I felt.”

Things that makes me happy to see @WoutvanAert on “muddy” roads ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/sFluBVXMmt

— Elly (@WielerfanRTM) October 13, 2024

Van Aert pillaged three stage wins and spent time in the GC, points, and KoM jerseys in his Vuelta debut this summer.

But it all ended in heartbreak when he exited the race after a high-speed descending crash deep in the Asturian mountains.

It was a crushing end to an already cruel season for the favorite of Flanders.

He also crashed in March at Dwars door Vlaanderen and was left with a laundry list of injuries that forced him out of the cobbled monuments and derailed his debut at the Giro d’Italia.

“Given how many times I’ve crashed this season, this one in Spain really was a crash too many,” Van Aert said last month.

A return of the Van Aert-Van der Poel rivalry?

Van Aert hinted when he left hospital that his injury could hold him back from diving directly into heavy training.

The past week of easy pedaling marks a significant first step for the months to come.

Visma-lease a Bike confirmed to Velo that the 30-year-old will likely compete in a selection of CX races this winter. His exact schedule is yet to be confirmed and will be dependent on the progress of his knee.

Van Aert last winter raced ‘cross nine times but skipped the world championships as he looked to spare his legs for the spring.

Will we see a return of the decades-long rivalry between Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel this winter?

Who knows.

“If I knew, I would tell you. We still have to decide whether or not I will go cyclocross this winter,” reigning CX champion Van der Poel said this month after he won gravel worlds. “I am going on holiday first, then we will see.”

Visma-Lease a Bike playing catch-up in the classics

Van Aert was handed an unprecedented infinite contract with Visma-Lease a Bike at the end of last month.

The “killer bees” will need more than ever to see their marquee star back to his bulldozing best next year.

Van Aert left a void at Visma-Lease a Bike while he rehabbed the injuries he sustained in March.

Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, and Jan Tratnik delivered through the spring, but Visma-Lease a Bike didn’t hit a top-10 in any of the five monuments. Benoot’s 12th-place finish this weekend at Il Lombardia was the team’s best all year at the prestigious one-day races.

“The future will tell when I can return to competition,” Van Aert said last month.

“If I remember one thing from the Vuelta, I was completely back and had found my legs again,” he said. “This injury shouldn’t stop me from returning at full strength.”

Van Aert will be wanting to flex to the full next April at his beloved Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.