Visma | Lease a Bike Optimistic as Wout van Aert Begins Altitude Recovery Camp
Wout van Aert will be spending the coming weeks at Sierra Nevada, which is already a victory in itself for the Belgian and his team Visma | Lease a Bike. Head of Racing Grischa Niermann gives us an update.
It has been a month since Wout van Aert suffered a small fracture in his ankle during the Zilvermeercross in Mol. This ended his cyclocross season, as well as his spring road season preparation. Van Aert said last week that he is doing well but is still dealing with his injury. He has also been working hard on his recovery with the physiotherapist – with his ankle taped up.
The next step is a three-week altitude training camp at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento. Van Aert is not alone, as Timo Kielich, Edoardo Affini, Christophe Laporte, Niklas Behrens, Bruno Armirail, and Davide Piganzoli from Visma | Lease a Bike are also present at Sierra Nevada, working on their form ahead of the classic spring races.
"Racing is not possible yet"
Although Van Aert has raced less cyclocross, making it to the camp at least does not put him further behind for the spring. "We have always planned this altitude camp, and for a while, it seemed that Wout could just go there. Of course, it’s very important that it actually worked out. He is still in rehabilitation. Despite that, he can train quite well. I don’t think he could race at this moment yet. Training is no problem."
But we shouldn’t expect miracles either. A small ankle fracture, especially when walking, can be quite troublesome. "He can just ride his bike, he can just train," Niermann emphasizes the positive. "Maybe he can’t fully load his ankle yet. But it’s going as we had hoped. It’s going according to plan. Right now, it’s still planned that he can start the Opening Weekend."
The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad takes place on February 28, quite soon and also very shortly after the camp. "We hope that he will be truly at his best at a later point. But we expect him to be as good as possible already at Omloop. How big a leap in performance he’ll make at the camp is hard to say right now. But for the moment he can just train, and that’s the most important thing."
Bad weather
However, the conditions the riders are facing in Spain right now are far from ideal. Van Aert even had to do his first training sessions of the week on the rollers, but according to Niermann, that’s not a problem.
"Such conditions are never good, of course. I think it’s very bad everywhere in Europe right now. But from what I’ve heard, it will improve in about two days. The first days are mostly adaptation anyway, the guys are on rollers now and don’t need to do very long sessions yet. Let’s just hope it doesn’t snow for three weeks there. Unfortunately, we have no choice on that."
