The bad luck continued on an anticlimactic return to racing for Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the Ename Samyn Classic, with a late puncture and two bike changes ruling him out of contention for the victory on Tuesday.
Having suffered a setback and fractured his ankle at a cyclo-cross race in January, Van Aert's misfortune extended into February before his planned road start at Opening Weekend. Last week, a stomach bug forced him to push back his 2026 season debut to Le Samyn.
Now into March and finally racing again, it was another day to forget for Van Aert, as after he had looked lively in chasing down moves and helping a late attack from teammate, Per Strand Hagenes, he had to give up his hopes of a return win due to a late rear wheel puncture.
With 10km to go, Van Aert pulled over and took the bike of teammate Pietro Matteo, before then swapping back onto his own spare a few corners later. With the charging peloton leaving him behind for a sprint finish, Van Aert rolled over the line on his own minutes later to a nice applause from the crowd, but surely wanting more.
"Plan B was to be up front in the final 10 kilometers and join the sprint. But then I punctured and quickly found myself in no man's land," Van Aert told Het Laatste Nieuws at the finish.
"Suddenly, there were a lot of shards of glass on the road. That's quite unusual on a course we've already ridden five or six times. It couldn't have ended up there by accident. Anyway, I tried to give chase, but you know you're not going to ride faster than a peloton on your own."
In his post-race interview with Sporza, Van Aert further on the glass question, reportedly saying, "That smells like sabotage," though not specifically "aimed at me," he clarified.
"But it was always the same route, and then suddenly there were actual shards of glass on the road. That's a shame. I don't know how it could have accidentally ended up there if we passed there half an hour ago."
He would have been met with more bad news as he reached his team: Hagenes' late attack was caught 600 metres from the finish, and Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won the sprint.
With Hagenes caught late, Van Aert out of contention, and Christophe Laporte missing the race due to "not feeling 100% fit", Visma had no riders battling for the win and none placed in the top 10.
"That's definitely a bummer. We wanted to push the pace, and Per did a fantastic job with a great solo. It was a close call. Too many teams still had strong riders and wanted to chase after the others," said Visma's head of racing, Grischa Niermann, to reporters, including HLN, at the finish.
"When [Van Aert] punctured in the final, we were a minute and a half behind him. He first swapped with a teammate and then with us again. By then, of course, it was too late to go back.
"Wout's feeling was okay, we didn't expect it to be great today. It's a shame he couldn't sprint, but we shouldn't draw too many conclusions after today. It was good to have ridden one more race before the Strade."
Van Aert will be hoping for better luck at his next appointment, Strade Bianche, which he is returning to race as a former winner for the first time since 2021 this Saturday.
From there, he'll head to Tirreno-Adriatico and then the first three Monuments of the season: Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
"I felt good, but I couldn't give myself any real answers because I missed the final. Regardless, it was the right choice to start here," said Van Aert. "The goal was to race as quickly as possible, and that's what I need now. I was able to take a step forward here."
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