'Almost professional again' - Wout van Aert continues recovery on gravel bike

Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) is continuing his journey back to full fitness and on Tuesday the Belgian completed his longest outdoor ride since crashing at Dwaars door Vlaanderen and breaking his collarbone, ribs and sternum four weeks ago.

Van Aert rode for 93.18km ride near his home in Herentals on Tuesday, with more rides expected this week. He started his rehabilitation by riding indoors and then returned to outdoor cycling on a modified mountain bike last week to cater for his injuries.

He completed the effort on a Cervélo Áspero-5 gravel bike and captioned the near-three hour ride on Strava “Almost professional again".

“It's been almost four weeks and I’m happy to be back riding outside,” said Van Aert as he soaked up the spring Belgian sun on a ride in a video released by his team .

The social media post was the first look at Van Aert actually turning the pedals since his brutal high-speed crash in the one-day Classic with the rib injury specifically keeping him out of training.

Wout van Aert rides outdoors for first time since Classics crash

'I need to prioritise my health' – Wout van Aert to miss Giro d'Italia

'I start to feel a little bit like myself again' says recovering Wout van Aert

After missing the key cobbled Classics races at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, Van Aert was also forced to skip another huge pre-season goal and rule out his debut at the Giro d’Italia.

When the Dutch team announced Van Aert would not be starting the Giro two weeks ago, he said: "At this point, I cannot train at all. I’m trying to do my first pedal strokes on the bike, but not enough to be able to train.”

“That is why we made the decision to not start in the Giro d’Italia.”

Van Aert was set to take on the Italian Grand Tour and chase stage wins, with a sixth appearance at the Tour de France not on the schedule before his other key summer goals of the Paris Olympics road race and time trial.

No new programme or timeline for his return has yet been announced by Van Aert or Visma Lease a Bike but he was replaced by Christophe Laporte for the Giro. The team did, however, reply to the new video of Van Aert with a second post stating “More coming up soon.”

Visma’s other superstar Jonas Vingegaard has also been completing a rehabilitation programme since his horrific crash at Itzulia Basque Country. His Grand Tour plans are similarly in doubt with a broken collarbone, ribs and pneumothorax keeping him in hospital in Spain until April 16.

Van Aert and Vingegaard’s absence leaves Visma-Lease a Bike significantly hampered heading into the second half of the season but decisions on the pair’s futures should be made in the coming weeks as the Giro and Tour de France near.