"He needs to pick up the bike-handling skills again so he doesn't fall anymore" - Experts urge Wout van Aert to ride full cyclocross campaign this winter
CyclingWednesday, 11 September 2024 at 09:26
For Wout van Aert, 2024 has been a year consistently disrupted by crashes and subsequent injuries. After showing signs of returning to his best form at the Vuelta a Espana, this Belgian once again was once again a victim of a crash.
"Of course he's disappointed. He'll be satisfied somewhere and if he goes to the Giro next year, he'll have won stages in all three of the Grand Tours," Eurosport pundit Jan Hermsen reflects. "But of course this is a shitty end to the year. His goal was to become world champion or European champion. We've seen the best Wout van Aert of the entire year and that ends against a Spanish wall. That's really sour."
Was the Wout van Aert we saw at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana the best version of the Belgian though? Jeroen Vanbelleghem isn't so sure. "He said himself he was very good, but not at the level of the Tour a few years ago," the expert analyses. "You also saw that in a few mountain stages where he had to drop off quite early given the group that was still together. Then in the Tour he went much further along.”
“He was getting really good and it's such a shame," Vanbelleghem continues however, well aware that the crash of a Van Aert is also a big blow to Belgian hopes of winning either the European title or the Rainbow Jersey. "He was really getting ready for the World Championship. It has unfortunately gone this way and it has been a terrible season for him."
But why is Van Aert such a crash magnet? According to Bobbie Traksel, the multi-discipline star's bike handling abilities might have trailed off a bit in recent season. “I actually hope he will ride a full cyclocross season again," says Traksel. "He needs to pick up the bike-handling skills again so he doesn't fall anymore. I'm referring to the fall in the Tour de France. That would never happen to a real cross rider. I do think this is going to take a little longer and it's quite a mental tick.”
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Barney17-05-2025 - Sometimes I am, you’re right. Seems like a waste of time to live life on the toilet. Do you feel better now you’ve managed to unload some of your frustration on a completely anonymous poster?Mistermaumau17-05-2025
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I thinks it's about risk management, if you are leading two jerseys some riders would ride more defensively during the stage, but this is Wout and riders like him are the reason we follow this amazing sport!
I'm not sure how bike handling helps when someone slips over right in front of your wheel like in the Vuelta crash. It's an occupational hazard, just like jump horse racing, even the greatest jockeys will fall and get injured.
Wout did put pressure on himself in going for the mountains classification. A jersey he was unlikley to win. Going for it everyday creates fatigue and fatigue creates mistakes. After all he had only just come back from injury. The Green jersey was enough reward on its own.
no one else crosses and still avoided more crashes than him
Jan Hermsen is a clown…
The skills are certainly still there but need honing. To me, it’s really about confidence. Confidence to stay on the bike and confidence to win races. Big crashes that happen because of accidents, which can happen regardless of skill set, plant seeds of doubt and fractions of hesitation in moments during a race that matter the most. When results stop coming because of that or still recovering from injury, guys like Wout get desperate. Low confidence and high desperation add a massive cognitive load that distracts from fundamental skills, like bike handling. Even for Wout, who is still one of the best bike handlers in the peloton, a ~1-5% loss in handling skills because of all that other load can be significant. I really hope he can break the cycle and get everything to click again next season. If anyone in the peloton could bounce back from a year like this, it’s Wout.