Visma-Lease a Bike releases previously unseen images of Wout van Aert’s heavy fall: “The first half hour was really terrible”

In The Spring Classics: Road to Resilience from Visma-Lease a Bike, the team shows never-before-seen images of Dwars door Vlaanderen and the serious crash of Wout van Aert. “Crap, the end of spring and also the end of the Giro,” is said immediately after the fall in the Visma-Lease a Bike team car. Merijn Zeeman immediately says: “Wout was there. I immediately saw that it was completely wrong.”

And Van Aert also tells his story: “The race was actually just starting for us. As a team we wanted to start attacking from the Kanarieberg. When Tiesj Benoot passes Tim Van Dijke, everything is still okay. I followed Tiesj’s movement to the left side.”

Joking Van Aert

“At first it was quite a shock,” our compatriot continues. “I wanted to get to the side of the road as quickly as possible. When I tried to move, I felt something was wrong with my shoulder and hip. Then I was in a lot of pain until I was given strong medication in the hospital. The first half hour was really terrible.”

“They quickly diagnosed the broken collarbone, but it was confirmed on photos just to be sure. Then they said they thought my ribs had been hit too, but then the next doctor came and said I had broken seven ribs. A little later it turned out that my sternum was also broken. At that moment I was actually quite calm and I said with a laugh, ‘I hope there won’t be too many more doctors, because that will only lead to injuries’.”

Paris-Roubaix mentally difficult

“The Tour of Flanders was the first day I was back home. You want to see how your teammates are doing. I couldn’t get out of the seat at that moment either, so it was completely difficult to avoid the race. During Paris-Roubaix I was not at home and I followed it from a distance. It might have been a little more difficult for me then. Then realization started to come. I was still very tired and still needed a lot of care. I was still far from training. That was mentally the most difficult moment of the past few weeks.”

“Things are going quite well considering the circumstances. In recent weeks I have been mobile again and can do normal things in life again. According to the people who guide me, recovery is going well. It is nice to put on the bib shorts again, although that was quite a task,” laughs Van Aert. “It is confronting that you, in perhaps the best shape of your life, are knocked back to the worst possible condition.”

READ ALSO. Wout van Aert will not start in the Giro after his heavy crash: “A big disappointment”