Giro deja vu? Wout van Aert falls ill ahead of Tour de France and skips national championships

Wout van Aert reached tremendous form during the spring classics but his momentum was completely interrupted by an illness he has in late April ahead of the Giro d'Italia which hampered his preparation quite a lot. Now, similar is happening before the Tour de France.

The Belgian rider began the Giro with poor form and only in stage 9 did he show the best version of himself, going on to win the iconic Siena stage which also put Isaac del Toro in the race lead. He ended up showing good form on a few other stages in the race and helping Simon Yates to victory, and the team hopes he can do the same with Jonas Vingegaard this July.

The Belgian went on an altitude camp with the Tour block now in June in preparation to the Tour and was making a comeback to racing this Sunday at the national championships, but the plans have been changed last-minute.

Team Visma | Lease a Bike announced this morning that he would not be racing and shared the following message: "Unfortunately, Wout van Aert is not feeling 100% fit and will therefore not start in today’s Belgian Championship".

"Wout developed symptoms of illness on Saturday evening, and following a medical evaluation this morning, the decision was made to withdraw from the race". The Tour starts within six days in Lille and the clock is ticking for the Belgian to make a quick improvement. rel

At the race this morning team DS Marteen Wynants told Het Laatste Nieuws that "it also came as a bolt from the blue for us. The training camp went well and there were no indications. I saw him this morning and he didn't look well."

"We are not taking any risks towards the Tour, which will be here very soon. Or the Tour de France in jeopardy? Today was certainly not good enough to start. But stomach flu comes unexpectedly and hopefully will pass quickly."