Wout van Aert posts a moving message prior to the start of the Tour

The Tour de France is finally here – and Wout van Aert is racing. At the start of the season, this was never the plan. He was going to ride a full Classics campaign and take on the Giro d’Italia.

His eight-week break from racing was due to a crash that left him with fractures to his collarbone, sternum and seven ribs. As a result, he was forced to withdraw from the remaining Spring Classics and miss his debut at the Giro d’Italia. After the crash, he underwent an extensive rehabilitation period. He planned to skip this year’s Tour de France and focus on the Olympic road race as his next goal.

The Belgian returned to racing at the Tour of Norway, two months after his brutal crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen on March 27. Although he suffered on the first day, he achieved two good results, a fourth and a third, and said his confidence is coming back.

He also rode in the Belgian Road Championships, where he finished fifth. Van Aert skipped the TT Championships, where he was due to defend his 2023 title. His team, Visma – Lease a Bike, announced that both he and Jonas Vingegaard would ride the Tour, answering the question that so many cycling fans had been asking for months. The Dane also suffered a serious crash in Spain, which left him in hospital for 12 days.

Van Aert and his wife Sarah De Bie celebrated their 6th wedding anniversary on Friday, the eve of the Tour de France. The Belgian celebrated this in a post on Instagram, where he shared photos of his wife and two children.

“The three people who helped me get up, find joy and finally race again. Thanks to you I made it to the start of the Tour!”