Team shares unique images of Wout van Aert’s fall, who looks back for the first time: “The first half hour was terrible”

More than a month after the facts, we finally hear his story. In a documentary by Visma-Lease a Bike, Wout van Aert tells his story for the first time about the fateful fall in Dwars door Vlaanderen that ended his spring. “At first I said to laugh, ‘I hope there won’t be too many more doctors coming’,” said Van Aert.

Even after all this time, they remain haunting images.

In the documentary ‘The Spring Classics: Road to Resilience’, the media team of Visma-Lease a Bike adds an extra layer to the heavy fall of Wout van Aert in Dwars door Vlaanderen.

It shows, among other things, how people responded in the support vehicle. “Crap, that’s the end of spring and the Giro,” the team leader immediately realized.

In the documentary of more than half an hour, Van Aert also gives his account for the first time: “The race was actually just starting for us. We wanted to start attacking as a team from the Kanarieberg. At the moment that Tiesj (Benoot, ed.) Tim (Van Dijke, ed.) passes, everything is still okay. I followed Tiesj’s movement to the left.”

“At first it was of course quite a shock,” Van Aert continues. “I wanted to move to the side of the road as quickly as possible. But when I tried, I felt something was wrong with my shoulder and hip. Then I was in a lot of pain – until I was given strong medication in the hospital. The first half hour was really terrible.”

It’s fun to put on the bib shorts again, although that was quite a task.

Wout van Aert

In the hospital, Van Aert’s fears would become reality.

“They quickly diagnosed the broken collarbone. Then they said they thought my ribs had also been hit, but then the next doctor came and said that I had broken seven ribs.”

“A little later it turned out that my sternum was also broken. At that moment I was actually quite calm and I said to laugh: ‘I hope there won’t be too many doctors, because that will only lead to injuries.'”

Paris-Roubaix was mentally the most difficult moment of the past few weeks.

Wout van Aert

But for Van Aert, the spring was allowed to come to an end.

“The Tour of Flanders was the first day I was back home,” he remembers. “You want to see how your teammates are doing. I couldn’t get out of the seat at that moment, so it is completely difficult to avoid the race.”

“During Paris-Roubaix I was not at home and I followed it a bit from a distance. Then it was perhaps a bit more difficult for me, because the realization started to set in. I was still very tired and still needed a lot of care. I was still a long way from training again. That was mentally the most difficult moment of the past few weeks.”

Finally, Van Aert also provides an update on his current condition.

“Things are going quite well now, considering the circumstances. In recent weeks I have become mobile again and can do normal things in life again. According to the people who guide me, the recovery is going well. (laughs) It is nice to wear the bib shorts again to pull off, although that was quite a task.”

“It is confronting that you, in perhaps the best shape of your life, are knocked back to the worst possible condition.”