Belgian Wout Van Aert suffers fractures to his collarbone and several ribs after his terrible fall on Wednesday in Across Flanders and will be withdrawn from the Tour of Flanders on Sunday and Paris-Roubaix, announced his team Visma-Lease a bike.
“A broken collarbone and several rib fractures were diagnosed at the hospital. Its duration of unavailability has not been determined at this stage. It is certain that he will miss the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race,” said the Dutch team in a press release on X. This is a huge setback for the Belgian cycling star who dreamed of finally having one of the two cobblestone Monuments on his list of achievements and who had sacrificed several races this winter to prepare for these two meetings.
He went violently to the ground 67 km from the finish on Wednesday after hitting a teammate’s wheel at very high speed in the supposedly dangerous descent leading to the foot of the Kanarieberg, dragging several other favorites into his fall. Among them, his compatriot Jasper Stuyven also suffered a broken collarbone, according to Belgian media, while Mads Pedersen, his leader in the Lidl-Trek team, was able to leave.
However, no fracture was detected in the Eritrean Biniam Girmay, who was also involved in the fall, according to his Intermarché training. Van Aert, 29, also had the Tour of Italy in May on his program, but not the Tour de France this summer since he is also aiming for medals at the Paris Olympics.