Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) travelled from his home near Antwerp in northern Belgium to Lille for the Tour de France Grand Depart on Wednesday, apparently recovered from the stomach bug that kept him out of the Belgian national championships on Sunday and off the bike for several days.
Van Aert's presence at the Tour de France was never in doubt but the illness may have hampered his final preparations and so too his personal objectives during the first week of the Tour, including the expected stage 1 sprint in Lille.
Van Aert was back in the saddle on Tuesday for what he called his 'Comeback number lost count' ride on Strava. The Belgian likes to joke with the names of his rides but was clearly indicating the many times he has been forced to return from injury and illness in recent years and even in 2025.
As the Flemish media quickly spotted, Van Aert rode for 105km at an average speed of 36.5 km/h on a loop north of Herentals, which included a section over the border into the Netherlands.
Van Aert was also hit by illness during a key pre-Giro d'Italia training camp and so struggled during the first week of the Corsa Rosa, before winning stage 9 across the Tuscan gravel to Siena. He was also forced to work hard during the winter after seriously damaging his knee in a crash at the Vuelta a España and also overcame serious injury in the spring of 2024 after crashing out of Dwars door Vlaanderen
Participation in the Belgian national championships is obligatory if riders want to ride for their nation at World Championships. They need a medical certificate to justify any absence.
Van Art travelled to Binche, where this year's 230km championships were held but struggled to eat breakfast and so was unable to start the race. His wife Sarah and their children also reportedly suffered from the same illness.
“It also came as a bolt from the blue for us,” said Visma-Lease a Bike sports director Maarten Wynants.
"The altitude training of the past weeks went well and there was no reason to think that he would drop out. The disappointment was of course great, because our entire plan was built around him"
Van Aert is doing the Giro-Tour double this year. He has not raced since finishing the Giro in Rome four weeks ago.
He finished the Giro strongly, going on the attack on three stages and working for Simon Yates on the mountain stage to Sestrière, where the Briton snatched overall victory. Van Aert has since spent several weeks at altitude in Tignes with Tour de France team leader Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates.
The Tour de France is the biggest race in cycling, and a Cyclingnews subscription offers you unlimited access to our unrivalled coverage.
Get all the breaking news and analysis from our team on the ground in France, plus the latest pro tech, live race reports, and a daily subscriber-only newsletter with exclusive insight into the action. Find out more.
