Wout van Aert returns to competition for Visma-Lease a Bike on Thursday at the Tour of Norway. It has been eight weeks since his crash Dwars door Vlaanderen, in which he broke his collarbone, sternum and seven ribs.
The Belgian was eager to test his physical recovery and mental strength at the four-day UCI ProSeries stage race, May 23-26, having missed his favourite Spring Classics as well as his Giro d’Italia debut.
“I’m feeling healthy, the spirit is good. I’m happy to be here and happy to pin on the number tomorrow again," Van Aert said in a press conference on Wednesday.
“It’s been a long rehab. It took quite a while until I could properly train again. But luckily, the last few weeks, I was able to do so without too much pain. So, me and the team decided to to try and race as soon as possible, to get back the good feeling of doing a race and being in the group.
“It will be a hard race for my current shape, but it will be, hopefully, good mentally to be here.
Even if he isn't in top form, Van Aert still has ambitions for the Tour of Norway. "I would of course like to win four stages here and take everything from then on. But unfortunately that is not realistic," he said.
"Hopefully I can return home with confidence and then compete again in the biggest races - where I think I belong - for a win in the summer."
Joining Van Aert on the start list is Norwegian youngster Per Strand Hagenes, who moved to the WorldTour this season from two years on the Jumbo-Visma Development programme. He said Hagenes had been accurate in describing the beauty of Norway, and was a super talent that could help the team this week.
“It's fun to find Norwegians that have love for cobbled Classics. That's for sure something that connects us,” he said about his young teammate, who helped him with the win at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in February.
“[He’s] a super young talent, super strong guy. His future looks really promising, I believe. It's good to have him here as well as a guide for us."
The start in the Tour of Norway is just one step back for Van Aert, who has undergone a difficult rehabilitation.
"It went up and down, because I had occasional repercussions. It was difficult to accept. I was tired of having to watch races on TV."
Missing Paris-Roubaix, his main objective of the early season, was particularly difficult, he said.
"I suspect that I wasn't enjoying myself anyway, although from my perspective it didn't seem that bad - until Paris-Roubaix. That was a very difficult day. Then I realized that I was still very far away from racing."
Gradually, Van Aert was able to begin taking walks, then rides on his mountain bike, but he was only able start training for race fitness earlier this month, he revealed.
"It wasn't until two weeks ago, when I left for a training camp in Spain. Before that I was able to cycle every day, but from Spain I could also train."
"Once you haven't ridden for two weeks, things deteriorate very quickly. I hoped to limit that period, but that turned out to be difficult. It was more like a winter break,"
he said.
After his long road back to racing, Van Aert is focussed on getting up to speed for the Olympic Games where he and Remco Evenepoel are expected to start as favourites in the individual time trial and road race.
The Tour de France, he said, "is only an option in the very best case. The Olympic Games are more realistic. The time trial is in two months. I had the least doubts about that. But I will only go to Paris if I can perform at top level."
