Wout van Aert shares footage of his return to fitness before the Vuelta a España: 'It was a loooong summer'

Wout van Aert is ready to go in the Vuelta a España, that much is clear. The Belgian rider from Visma | Lease a Bike performed well during the opening weekend, so we’re looking forward to seeing what’s next. How did Van Aert get his legs in such great shape? According to his latest Instagram post, it took a “loooong summer,” complete with ups and downs.

Van Aert posted a whole series of photos online just before the Vuelta a España and the day before he stole the show in the final stretch of Stage 2. The road to the Vuelta was a bumpy one for the Belgian, as the photo series also makes clear. “It was a loooong summer, with a lot of hard work and my loved ones always by my side. Time for a long look back—vamos!”

In this photo series, we start with a photo from the hospital, because that’s actually where Van Aert’s summer began. After a crash during training, he rode the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with his elbow bandaged, but one day after his stage victory in the French stage race, the Belgian withdrew and had to go to hospital with an infection.

After Van Aert had recovered, the long road to the Vuelta began. Cycling fans saw him in late July and early August at the Tour of Denmark, where he won three stages and claimed the overall title. But behind the scenes, out of the camera’s view, much more was happening.

We see lots of lovely photos of him with his family—with his oldest son, Georges, on his bike and his wife, Sarah, by his side—in Belgium and Livigno. They celebrated a birthday; we see Van Aert doing a grueling heat training session in his basement and wearing eclipse glasses for the solar eclipse. The photo series concludes with a shot of Van Aert riding uphill at full speed. We’ll be seeing that at the Vuelta, too.