It happened in a heartbeat. One moment Wout van Aert was locked into the wheel of his teammate, Tiesj Benoot, as the pace ramped up at Dwars door Vlaanderen. The next, he was in a heap on the asphalt with his jersey in tatters, along with his Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix dreams for another year.
Cycling has shown time and time again that while it can be breathtakingly beautiful, it can also be staggeringly cruel. That was no more evident than in the sight of the Belgian on the tarmac, his back visibly bruised and battered as the pain of all of his preparation being laid to waste overwhelmed him. This will no doubt have hurt more than the broken collarbone, multiple broken ribs and broken sternum which his team later confirmed he had suffered in the crash.
