The Belgian professional cyclist Wout van Aert suffered a broken collarbone and various rib fractures in his serious fall during the one-day race Across Flanders. His team Visma-Lease a Bike announced this on Wednesday evening. For the 29-year-old, the spring season is over. According to the team, his downtime is unclear. Van Aert will definitely miss the Tour of Flanders on Sunday as well as Paris-Roubaix (April 7th) and the Amstel Gold Race (April 14th). He would have been one of the favorites there. Whether van Aert can take part in the Giro d’Italia as planned from May 4th seems to be at least questionable. There he was supposed to compete as captain in a major national tour for the first time.
The nine-time Tour stage winner lost control of his bike at high speed 67 kilometers from the finish on Wednesday and, like about a dozen riders, fell. The Belgian screamed in pain as he was put on a stretcher and taken into an ambulance. Other injured riders were the Eritrean Biniam Girmay and the Belgian Jasper Stuyven from Lidl-Trek, whose teammate Mads Pedersen from Denmark also fell.