Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Jan Boven shares reassuring update on Wout van Aert

Boven was, of course, in Mol when Van Aert went down and walked us through that moment. “When he fell, I thought it might be alright. At first it mostly seemed unlucky that he landed on his knee, which wasn’t in great shape already. But once he stopped, you could see his ankle swell very quickly. That’s when I realised it wasn’t optimal.”

“That was straight to the team bus, where doctor Claes was waiting. The speed of that was good because we could check the ankle immediately. We then drove to the hospital in Herentals, where the diagnosis came and the operation followed the next morning. It couldn’t have been much quicker,” Boven continued.

Van Aert himself spoke to the press in La Nucia earlier this week about his recovery. “I was able to get on the rollers quite quickly again. When I’m on the bike at a low intensity, it feels okay. My foot is essentially locked in my cycling shoe, so that’s doable. The fracture is fixed with a scre,w and the ligaments around it need time to recover, so we are taking it day by day,” he said.

Boven offered a positive update six days after the crash. “It’s going faster than expected. At the time, it was difficult to gauge exactly how quickly the recovery would proceed. After the surgery, we thought he wouldn’t be able to ride for one week, and then he would be able to start building up gently — with the understanding that cycling would come relatively quickly, faster than walking.”

“In the end, after three days he was already on the rollers for a bit, and that went well,” the Dutch sports director added. With that he could begin to build up. Afterward, the team travelled to Spain where he has been able to complete road training sessions ranging from two and a half to six hours. He feels good and has lost little fitness. Of course it’s not ideal — after all, it’s still a broken foot — but progress is encouraging.

Boven took a cautious look ahead: “The damage is ultimately that he didn’t ride Zonhoven and the Belgian National Championships. Especially the nationals he was really looking forward to, so that was disappointing, because in Loenhout and Mol he felt like he was getting back into rhythm — which was unlucky.”

“But it is what it is and I’m mostly happy that he could get back to doing his thing very quickly. If we had to sit still for two months, of course the situation would be different,” they said at Visma | Lease a Bike. The next potential stop? Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. “For the trajectory towards spring, there doesn’t seem to be too much damage,” Boven concluded.