Wout van Aert's carefully laid Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix goals came crashing down at Dwars door Vlaanderen when he broke his collarbone, sternum and several ribs, but little more than a week later the Belgian appears to be starting to feel the recovery process take hold.
"9 days post surgery and I start to feel a little bit like myself again," Van Aert said in an Instagram post.
The Dwars door Vlaanderen crash clearly ruled out two major goals of the season for the 29-year-old, with his Visma-Lease a Bike team all of a sudden having to reset their plans for Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Losing the rider most likely to rival favourite Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) at those races, however, may not be the end of the reshuffle.
Van Aert – who has five Tour de France participations and nine stage wins under his belt – had this year been planning to take on the Giro d'Italia for the first time.
The team said in an update after the rider underwent surgery in Herentals that his participation in the Giro d'Italia, starting on May 4, is still uncertain, with a decision to be made in the coming weeks.
"I hope to be back on my bike soon but at this moment a full recovery of my wounds and broken bones has my absolute priority," said Van Aert. "I am grateful for the extra time I get to spend with my loved ones."
After thanking those who took care of him after his crash, Van Aert also expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of well wishes that followed.
"But I can’t point out enough how overwhelming the support is from all of you. I never received [m]ore messages, presents, mails,… This made me smile more and suffer less," said Van Aert.
"Thank you x1000."
Van Aert is just one of many riders that, in recent weeks, have faced crashes where the consequence has been injuries that will require a considerable recovery time and instantly call into question a number of key goals for the season.
Jasper Stuyven and Alex Kirsch of Lidl-Trek and Michele Gazzoli (Astana Qazaqstan) also left Dwars door Vlaanderen with fractures and a huge crash at Itzulia Basque Country added many more to cycling's current sickbay list.
Van Aert's teammate Jonas Vingegaard, Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Steff Cras (TotalEnergies) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) were among the riders taken to hospital with fractures and other injuries.
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