Wout van Aert has pulled out of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes before the start of stage 6 due to lingering issues from the training crash he suffered before the race, Visma-Lease a Bike announced on Friday morning.
Having won the stage 5 sprint in dominant fashion, Van Aert will now head back to Belgium for further checks. He had struggled to show form in the opening three stages before bouncing back with impressive sprints on Wednesday and Thursday.
Wout Van Aert will not appear at the start of stage 6 of Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes today," read a statement on Visma's X profile.
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"He is still experiencing significant discomfort in his elbow related to the crash he sustained last week. Wout will travel back to Belgium for further medical examinations. Join us in wishing Wout a smooth recovery."
The Belgian had appeared at the start line on stage 1 with bandages on his elbow and knee, revealing that he had come down on his time trial bike and "lost the handlebars in a big pothole."
Van Aert is one of four non-starters already announced ahead of the trio of closing mountain stages, alongside Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) – focusing on Tour de France preparation, Matevž Govekar (Bahrain-Victorious) – illness, and Hannes Wilksch (Tudor) – fever overnight.
A six-time stage winner at the renamed Critérium du Dauphiné, this is the first time Van Aert hasn't finished the race in four appearances.
He now has 22 days until the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Barcelona, where he will play a vital role for Visma both as a stage hunter and as one of Jonas Vingegaard's support squad. It's due to be his eighth participation in cycling's biggest race, where he will be chasing an 11th stage victory.
The Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes has created both grounds for optimism and some concern regarding Van Aert's condition, after five days of very mixed signals.
Doubts were beginning to creep in after he failed to contribute much to Visma's team time trial-winning effort on stage 3, Van Aert admitting that he "thought I would be further along than what I showed."
Having answered those doubts with a win, however, Van Aert didn't hide that he had been feeling the effects of that pre-race crash on the long road to the bird park in Villars-les-Dombes.
"Sometimes it's painful after the crash I had just before this race, but with the team I have around me, and they were chasing the breakaway the whole day, I just had to try."
It's the latest in a long list of setbacks for the Belgian, who broke his ankle at the start of the 2026 season during a cyclo-cross race, before bouncing back to form in the Classics and taking the biggest win of his career at Paris-Roubaix.
Without him, Visma will continue their pursuit of the yellow jersey at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with Edoardo Affini, Per Strand Hagenes, Bruno Armirail, Ben Tulett, and Jorgen Nordhagen supporting US rider Matteo Jorgenson. The American will start stage 6 in fourth overall, 15 seconds off the overall lead of Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost).
