Wout van Aert has revealed how the injuries caused by his major crash and abandon in the Vuelta a España two weeks ago are taking longer than anticipated to heal, but also confirmed that he hopes to race cyclo-cross this winter before tackling a full road program in 2025.
Van Aert crashed heavily on stage 16 of the Vuelta a España, suffering a major injury in his right knee and having to abandon.
Speaking for the first time in public since his crash at a press conference for a road safety campaign and shortly after news broke that he had signed an apparently unprecedented career-long contract with Visma-Lease a Bike, Van Aert said the damage to his knee had been more serious than initially thought.
But despite still needing crutches and having to miss the upcoming World Championships, Van Aert remained upbeat about his chances of participating as usual in the upcoming winter cyclocross campaign.
“Initially it looked like I suffered a major blow when I crashed, but no fracture,” Van Aert told Belgian media.
“But on returning to Belgium, a huge bruise was detected, fortunately 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.
“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.”
Van Aert said that the last few days had seen an improvement and he was able to walk again, albeit with crutches.
“And fortunately, my cartilage, kneecap and ligaments are all intact. So it is not an injury that will keep me off the bike permanently.”
Van Aert said that his Vuelta crash was far less serious than the one he suffered in the April Classics, which wrecked the middle third of his season and left him with multiple fractures. But he said that having made such a successful comeback at the Spanish Grand Tour - where he led the race for a day, won three stages, and was heading the points and mountains classifications at the time he fell - the mental impact of yet another big fall had been considerable. As he put it, "given how many times I’ve crashed this season, this one in Spain really was a crash too many".
“It’s not been easy. I needed help for everything, from getting out of bed to going to the toilet,” he told Dernière Heure. “But it was impossible to bend my leg and that was very frustrating. I’ve also had the disappointment of ending a season this way, it’s tough to handle. I was on the point of taking home a new jersey from the Vuelta and that was very hard to accept.”
However, he said his family’s support had helped ease him through the tough times, even if being injured made it hard to participate in home life as much as he’d like after such a long time away from Belgium.
“I can take away a lot of positives from this season, I’ve won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, finished third in Het Nieuwsblad and E3.
“I think my form in the Vuelta was the best since the 2022 Tour de France. That’s all very important mentally and for further down the line.
“It’s important to relativize 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.”
Pinning down specific projects for 2025 was not yet possible given he was recovering from the injury, but he said that he remained hopeful of taking part in cyclocross this winter.
“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.”
