Wout van Aert flies to Sierra Nevada today for three-week altitude training camp

Wout van Aert is still recovering from the ankle injury he sustained at the Silvermeercross in Mol, but the Belgian is meanwhile able to continue preparing for his first spring races. He will do so in the south of Spain in the coming weeks.

The Visma | Lease a Bike rider is flying to Spain today for a three-week altitude training camp, reports Het Laatste Nieuws. Van Aert will stay at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento in Sierra Nevada. There he can further hone his condition ahead of the start of his road season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (March 28).

Van Aert is not alone, as Timo Kielich, Edoardo Affini, Christophe Laporte, Niklas Behrens, Bruno Armirail, and Davide Piganzoli are also present in Sierra Nevada on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike.

Not completely pain-free yet
It has now been a month since Wout van Aert suffered a small fracture in his ankle. The Visma | Lease a Bike Belgian said last week that he is doing well, but that he is still working on his injury. He was also working hard on his recovery earlier this week at the physiotherapist—with his ankle taped up—as shown in footage on Instagram.

Van Aert was a guest last week on the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast with 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 now, and on the bike I can already accelerate a bit out of corners again. I’m becoming more and more of a normal person, but I’m still working on it.”

“Once that foot is fixed, the pedaling motion itself is within my comfort zone. It’s really just that last degree of ankle movement that’s still painful. And I can’t sprint flat out yet.”