Wout van Aert is arguably one of the strongest and seemingly multi-talented riders in the WorldTour peloton but even the Belgian cannot avoid illness and setbacks.
At his best, Van Aert would be a contender in the opening Tirreno-Adriatico time trial, throw himself into the sprint finishes, fight for other stage wins in the Italian hills and maybe even fight for overall victory.
Not this year.
Van Aert was struck by illness after arriving at a key Jumbo-Visma altitude camp in mid-February and has been playing catch-up as he suffered on Mount Teide in Tenerife. That forced him to miss Strade Bianche and turn Tirreno-Adriatico into a final preparation race for the spring Classics.
“I’m good enough to race and I’ll be competitive but I was supposed to start my season at Strade Bianche at 100%. Due to the circumstances, I’ll start racing at Tirreno a bit lower than 100% and I’ll be trying to catch up this week,” Van Aert revealed to Cyclingnews and other media in Italy on Sunday.
“I had five days off after the World Cyclocross Championship, which was of course needed after the cross season. But then, after two days at altitude, I was forced to take another five days off training.
“Adding these two periods of rest together was just too long to maintain the same level of fitness. I did my first quality training ride two weeks after the cyclocross worlds. That was at least one week later than we’d hoped and that’s why we had to change the plan.”
Van Aert’s winter base training and his cyclocross season meant he did not have to start from zero, even if it felt like it.
“For a few rides, it felt like I was back to zero but luckily my form came back faster than normal in the winter period. It’s a setback, with really bad timing but sometimes things make you stronger, you learn from it and you try to get better,” he explained, not overly concerned and hoping his slowed start to his 2023 road season could be a blessing in disguise.
“I was disappointed after the cyclocross worlds and my illness but after a few days, I got up again and restarted.
“There’s no reason to panic because it will not help me. It’s always important to make new plans when it’s necessary and that’s what we did. I stayed an extra week at altitude instead of tapering for Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico. In fact, I didn’t really taper, I just trained until yesterday, when I had the flight here.
“I hope that after Paris-Roubaix I can tell you that it was a…
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