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James Moultrie

'I had hoped not to suffer like this' - Wout van Aert stays downbeat but realistic on race return

Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).

57 days after his 2024 season was put on hold due to a brutal crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) finally found himself back in a race peloton on stage 1 of the Tour of Norway on Thursday. However, it wasn’t a return to complete normality for the Belgian star.

After recovering from a fractured collarbone, ribs and sternum, rather than compete for the win as he likely would have pre-crash, Van Aert had to “just ride there and suffer in the bunch."

Van Aert finished 60th, 2:52 down on stage winner Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) after finishing his work for Bart Lemmen, who was fourth at the line. 

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