Wout van Aert will not start stage six of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes stage race, with the team citing ongoing discomfort from a pre-race training crash.
His decision not to start stage six comes hard on the heels of victory in stage five of the race in a sprint finish – a result somewhat at odds with his performance as a whole over the week, which has seen him off the pace and clearly suffering with the after-effects of the crash.
A team statement released by his Visma-Lease a Bike team on Friday morning said: "Wout Van Aert will not appear at the start of stage 6 of Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes today. He is still experiencing significant discomfort in his elbow related to the crash he sustained last week. Wout will travel back to Belgium for further medical examinations. Join us in wishing Wout a smooth recovery."
Despite his win at Villars-les-Dombes yesterday, which saw Van Aert pull a little-used trick from his extensive repertoire to win a bunch sprint, the Belgian has looked off the pace at times. Comments from his team suggested that too much celebrating following his Paris-Roubaix win in April might have had something to do with it, but it no longer looks as simple as that.
He showed up at Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes sporting gauze bandages, but told reporters at the time that his training crash, which saw him come off his time trial bike, had caused "very limited" damage.
After his win, he said: "I think it was a difficult start. It was even difficult today, mentally... I’m happy with this. I have to keep working now."
Van Aert was dropped and lost 24 minutes on a relatively innocuous first stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, with Visma head of performance Mathieu Heijboer telling Nieuwsblad: "He has to come from further back than usual," he added. "That isn't even about data. It just takes a little longer to get going again.”
That was followed by a disappointing performance in Tuesday's team time trial, which saw him dropped after just eight minutes. Afterwards he admitted that he had hoped to be in better condition so close to July.
"I find it difficult to answer that right now," he conceded, when asked whether he would be fully fit for the Tour de France. "Today was a disappointing day for me; we will see how things develop. I don't intend to give up."
His stage five win and the apparent lingering effects of his training crash may give Van Aert and his team hope that this is not just a simple lack of condition. With his next race set to be the Tour itself, he has a shade over three weeks to rest, recover, and re-find the form he needs to support Jonas Vingegaard in his attempt to complete a Giro-Tour double.
