Visma hopeful Van Aert can start season at Le Samyn after illness
Illness forced Wout van Aert to miss his planned season debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but his Visma | Lease a Bike team is hopeful he can recover in time to line out at Le Samyn on Tuesday.
Wout van Aert was missing from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad through illness but still in the minds of the fans that gathered at the Kuipke velodrome in Gent for the start on Saturday morning. When his Visma | Lease a Bike team arrived to sign on, they were serenaded by a song in honour of their absent leader.
After an ankle fracture brought a premature end to his cyclocross season on January 2, Van Aert had planned to start his road campaign at Omloop but a bout of illness during the week forced him to withdraw from the race.
It remains to be seen if Van Aert will recover in time to line out at Le Samyn on Tuesday, though Visma sports director Maarten Wynants gave a guardedly optimistic update when he spoke to Het Laatste Nieuws on Saturday morning.
“We hope he can start in Le Samyn. An update will follow,” Wynants said. “I can confirm that he is eating and drinking, so that’s a first step.”
Speaking on Friday, Visma head of racing Grischa Niermann expressed confidence that Van Aert’s absence from Opening Weekend would not have a lasting impact on his Classics campaign.
“Everything was actually going according to plan with Wout beforehand, he’s had a very good training period,” Niermann told Wielerflits.
“He no longer had any injury problems and could do everything in training. However, we don’t have a crystal ball to say how quickly he’ll be fit again. It’s not like he’s terminally ill, it’s more that he’s sick, like we all get sometimes. He’ll be fine in the long run.”
In the shorter term, Matthew Brennan and Christophe Laporte lead the line for Visma at Opening Weekend, and they will face stiff opposition from Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) at Omloop.
“It’s really unfortunate he’s not here. He sent us a WhatsApp message this morning wishing us the best of luck and I know he’s going to be sat watching on the TV and probably doing some analysis on what we’re all doing wrong,” Brennan smiled before the start.
“It doesn’t really change how we’re going to race. We’re still going to race really aggressively and try to create the best scenario we can, and hopefully we can win.”
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