Van Aert's underwhelming return to racing is nothing to worry about: 'Not everything can be captured in data'

After his Paris-Roubaix victory, Wout van Aert took a well-earned break. The Belgian of Visma | Lease a Bike returned to racing this Sunday in the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, but things did not go especially well in the opening stage. As it turned out, there is an explanation, and, accordiong to the man himself, no real need to worry.

After almost two months without racing, Van Aert was back in competition Sunday, but he suffered on the opening stage of the 'new' Criterium du Dauphiné. He finished in the gruppetto, more than 24 minutes behind stage winner Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost). Where some may already have expected to see a strong Van Aert, he looked a shadow of his former self.

But the Belgian was also on the start line with his arm in a bandage. He had fallen off his time-trial bike last Monday, as later became clear. “It was not a nice crash,” he said before the start of stage two to CyclingPro.net. “I crashed on the time-trial bike, I lost control in a big hole in the road. It was not a soft landing, but I am okay, and good enough to race this event. Unfortunately, I did not feel great yesterday straight away.”

Monday's second stage should be one that suits him. So can we already expect something? “We will see what today brings. It is a long day, with climbs that should suit me. It will be interesting to see how the race develops. Not many teams will want to control all day, with tomorrow’s team time trial in mind. It could be one for the breakaway.”

At least there is no reason to doubt that he will be in form for the Tour de France. Coach Mathieu Heijboer sees that his rider is fully back to himself, and backs that up with his sprint in Paris-Roubaix. “Not everything can be captured in data, but the sprint he produced from his legs, he had not done that in years,” he told Procycling. “In my view that cannot be explained by training alone.”

The Dutchman saw that it was a very special moment on the Vélodrome. “In that sprint there was the magic of sport. It was the result of everything coming together at that moment. The fact that Wout wanted to win so badly, that it had so often just not happened, that he had visualised in advance when he would launch his sprint if he ended up in that situation... There was so much history behind it.”

Van Aert’s explosiveness now appears to be fully back. “What he missed last season was the accumulation of performances; getting better again through training. That is incredibly difficult if the base is missing. That is why his sprint at the end of a hard race was no longer as strong. He had lost some explosiveness, and it takes time to get that back.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]