BREAKING: Wout van Aert OUT of the 2026 Tour de France due to elbow wound infection

Belgian Wout van Aert will not race this summer’s Tour de France due to a persistent elbow injury, his team has confirmed.

The Visma - Lease a Bike rider recently abandoned the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and also skipped the start of the team’s training camp earlier this week, which had already raised red flags about his condition. Van Aert was slated as a key support rider for Jonas Vingegaard at the Grande Boucle, in a year when the Dane is chasing the Giro d’Italia–Tour de France double.

However an infection on an elbow wound, sustained in training crash before the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, has not healed well enough - leading to him not joining their pre-Tour training camp and now bowing out of the race.

For now, it has not been confirmed, per Daniel Benson, who will take his place in Visma-Lease a Bike’s Tour selection, a significant loss for the team’s structure ahead of the French race.

For years, Wout van Aert has been one of Visma-Lease a Bike’s most decisive riders at the Tour de France, far beyond individual results. His role as a deluxe domestique was crucial in Jonas Vingegaard’s two consecutive wins, where his ability to control the bunch, respond on any terrain, and appear in key moments made a difference in the GC battle.

Across his Tour appearances, the Belgian has built an exceptional record in the race itself including time trial victories, wins on high-mountain stages, and multiple reduced sprints, a versatility almost unique in modern cycling.

That all-round capacity let him both protect his leader and hunt his own chances when the race allowed. In 2021, he achieved one of contemporary cycling’s rare feats by winning a mountain stage, a time trial, and a sprint in the same edition, a mark that places him in a very select historical group.

His impact has also extended to decisive days where he operated as a key tactical piece, hardening the race on long climbs or shielding Vingegaard under peak pressure against direct rivals. Beyond his team role, Van Aert has delivered memorable wins, including his brilliant display in Paris, where he took the final stage of the 2025 Tour after a high-level duel with Tadej Pogacar, a finish that underscored his status as a clutch rider even under maximum strain.

For all these reasons, his absence, once confirmed, represents a major competitive and strategic blow to the Dutch team in the fight for the yellow jersey. They lose not only a rider capable of winning on any terrain, but also one of the most complete and dependable domestiques in the modern peloton.