Wout van Aert gives update on ankle injury

Wout van Aert had to end his cyclocross season prematurely due to a small fracture in his ankle. How is that injury doing now? Just under four weeks after his crash in the Zilvermeercross in Mol, he gave an update on his recovery in the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast by Laurens ten Dam and Stefan Bolt.

"It's going well," Van Aert began. "Cycling came back surprisingly quickly, but real training took some time. On the first rides, I still had to take my foot out of the pedal with my hand. At first, I was even riding with sandals, but that didn’t feel good either. Then I modified one shoe so that my foot could fit in."

"But now the swelling is gradually going down. Walking is almost normal, and on the bike, I can already accelerate a bit out of the corners. I'm becoming more and more a normal person again, but I'm still working on it."

Not sprinting at full power yet
Van Aert already trained once for six hours in Spain. "To some extent, I still had a bit of discomfort, but regarding the cycling itself, I have to say: once the foot is stabilized, the pedaling motion itself is within my comfort zone. It’s really the last few degrees of ankle movement that are still painful. And I can’t sprint at full power yet."