"Not aimless": Wout van Aert uses taped ankle to recover and build spring form
It has now been a month since Wout van Aert suffered a small fracture in his ankle. The Belgian from Visma | Lease a Bike said last week that he is doing well, but he is still dealing with his injury. He is also working hard on his recovery with physiotherapy, as shown in footage on Instagram.
Thijs Hertsens, physiotherapist and owner of Lab Physio, is currently helping several injured pro cyclists with their rehabilitation. On Monday, he shared footage of, among others, Laurens Sweeck (who dislocated the joint between his collarbone and shoulder girdle in the Azencross) and Wout van Aert, both doing exercises in the training room. Van Aert was doing so with his ankle taped up.
After his gym session, Van Aert also got on his bike for a three-hour ride. From Antwerp, he rode a loop along the Scheldt River back to his home in Herentals. In the end, he logged a solid three hours and 102.6 km, averaging 33 kilometres per hour. "Not aimless," was the caption on his Strava post.
Van Aert was a guest last week on the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast by Laurens ten Dam and Stefan Bolt. “It’s going well,” he said there. He indicated that the swelling in his ankle was going down. "Walking is almost normal, and on the bike I can already accelerate a bit out of corners. I’m becoming more and more like a normal person again, but I’m still working on it.”
In Spain, he already trained for six hours once. “To some extent, I still had some discomfort, but as far as cycling itself is concerned, I have to say: once the foot is fixed, the pedal stroke itself is in my comfort zone. It’s really that last degree of ankle movement that still hurts. And I can’t go full sprint yet.”
