PARIS: Belgian cyclist Wout van Aert broke his collarbone and several ribs in a high-speed mass fall during the Around Flanders one-day race on Wednesday. The 29-year-old star will now miss Sunday’s blockbuster Tour of Flanders and next week’s Paris-Roubaix but could be back for the Giro d’Italia in May, where he will be hoping for several stage wins.

Wednesday’s crash happened with the lead group riding at speeds approaching 60km/h on a broad highway. Van Aert fell on the uneven surface before being run over by another cyclist. Clearly in agony, with his riding outfit almost entirely shredded and with abrasion marks covering his back, he was left screaming in pain as he was taken into an ambulance.

“Unfortunately, Wout van Aert suffered several fractures in the crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen today,” his Visma team said in a statement. “A broken collarbone and several broken ribs were diagnosed in hospital. It is unclear how long his recovery will take.

“He will definitely miss the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race.” The Amstel Gold Race takes place on April 14 while the Giro d’Italia, where van Aert suggested last week he would target four of five stage wins, begins on May 4.

Van Aert’s sheer power and stamina were key factors in Visma’s success in lifting the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana last season. He has won nine stages on the Tour de France. His role as ‘road manager’ on the Tours makes him Visma’s highest paid star alongside Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard on around four million euros a season.

Out of comfort zone

Aware that the clock is ticking down on his career, Van Aert decided to target the Monuments races, starting with the Paris-Roubaix mudfest on the old mining roads of northern France, Sunday’s epic Tour of Flanders, the Giro and the Olympics in Paris in July.

“Always staying in the comfort zone is the easiest thing, but the reality is that I haven’t won the Ronde (Flanders) and Roubaix yet,” he said when departing on a three-week altitude training camp in Tenerife in early March. “Skipping the Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo was a difficult decision,” he said of the two races he has in fact already won.

But it was a necessary choice to be in the best possible shape for the start of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. “There’s a good chance I’ll race the Amstel Gold Race after the cobbles. Hopefully I will do so with one or more victories under my belt,” he said at the time.

Van Aert will almost certainly be a gold medal contender for both the individual time trial and the 273km road race around Paris at the 2024 Olympics. Wednesday’s race was won by Van Aert’s American teammate Matteo Jorgenson who added Around Flanders to his Paris-Nice victory earlier in March. — AFP