Wout van Aert’s Tour de France withdrawal has raised fresh concern in Belgium over the elbow injury that ended his July plans and left Team Visma | Lease a Bike without one of their defining riders.
Van Aert had already abandoned the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes after five stages, but the final decision still landed hard. He has been one of Visma’s Tour constants across seven consecutive appearances, combining 10 stage wins with the kind of support work that helped Jonas Vingegaard win yellow.
Christophe Vandegoor, one of Sporza’s leading cycling commentators, summed up why the absence feels so significant. “Wout van Aert is always there,” Vandegoor said. “Within the team, he is a bit of a ‘Mister Tour de France’, with 10 stage wins and seven consecutive appearances.”
The bigger worry, though, sits with the injury itself. Jose De Cauwer, the former Belgian national coach and long-time Sporza commentator, was stunned by the news when Sporza asked him for his reaction. “Come on, you’re kidding me?” De Cauwer said. “I was sitting here in my garden with binoculars, watching woodpeckers. Then that injury must be much worse than they said last week.”
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