VIDEO: The Classics team of Wout Van Aert stuck training indoor as snowstorm hits Sierra Nevada
CyclingMonday, 09 February 2026 at 23:00
The last couple months and even years of Wout Van Aert's have not always been a smooth ride for the 31-year-old Belgian. Illness and injuries have continuously taken their toll on the Visma star, most recently his crash during the snowy Zilvermeercross in Mol Exact Cross where Van Aert injured his ankle.
That incident effectively ended Van Aert's cyclocross season, however it also brought about an opportunity to fully prepare for spring Classics where Van Aert has unfinished business at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders and especially the Paris-Roubaix, where bad luck cost him a victory number of times.
And so, Visma | Lease a Bike have travelled to the popular professional cyclist training site in Sierra Nevada to get some quality kilometers at high altitude in their legs... At least that was the plan, however Sierra Nevada was struck with a snowstorm which locked the whole group inside their quarters with attention shifting to indoor training.
In an Instagram story, Van Aert's teammate Nikias Behrens presented their "winter wonderland" with all its ups and downs. But what's clear is that all men would prefer being able to actually ride their bikes outside over the freezing temperatures in which even team cars refuse to get going in the morning...
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- C’mon, you can’t just state stuff like that without checking, you’ll get caught out like Jokeviç trying to sneak into Australia. In between the 2 weeks he spent in the Sierra Nevada, he managed to give away he was there participating through interviews, posting rides including a fun outing at 3300m with Urska. Then he turns up immediately in Sestrières for another stage with Adam until his national championships 10 days later. The lowest land around there is over 2000m, he got enough altitude training done on his bike.Mistermaumau09-02-2026
- It was the weeks spent off his usual bike after he broke his wrist that had such an impact. A lot was written at the time about how essential training on the bike was; running and indoor training cannot make up for it. And he had to miss the altitude camp that would have prepared him for a grand tour after a season of classics. Sean Kelly predicted that he would blow up in the third week as a result; that had happened to Kelly after a similar lack of training.Hills3309-02-2026
- Yawn. More clickbait from an irrelevant, aging, uninformed ex pro. Do better CUTDCrashjames09-02-2026
- “Remco is someone who likes being at the centre of attention,” he said. “That might actually be good for me, because I can focus more on my own work.” Translation - Remco is an attention seeker, I want to exploit that so I can do my own thing. On a different note, it's strange how similar Lipo's career has been to Vinge's. Both had underwhelming junior and U23 careers, both took their first pro win at the age of 22 (a stage of the Tour de Pologne for Jonas and a stage and the overall of the Czech Tour for Florian), and the following year, both supported Primož Roglič to overall victory at La Vuelta (2020 for Jonas and 2024 for Florian) while putting some impressive performances of their own, and in the next season both podiumed at the Tour de France, despite Roglič being the designated leader. Both are similar types of non-explosive riders (or Jonas was at least), though none of this means that Lipo will copy what Vinge did. However, if history repeats itself, Lipo wins the 2026 Tour de France like Jonas did in 2022, while Remco follows the course that Primož did (podiumed in 2024 like Roglič in 2020, abandoned the next year and the next). That seems very unlikely but frankly I wouldn't be surprised if it happens.
Rafionain-Glas09-02-2026 - That's why Remco's crash was so bad because a) it was far worse than Tadej's and b) it was after his rock-bottom period of the off seasonRafionain-Glas09-02-2026
- Yes, races should be as varied as possible. We have the same problem in amateur racing where I am, despite mountains all around, nobody integrates them in races like used to be the case. At best now you can get a a 5-10min climb or a less if a circuit. You need to mingle with unlicensed riders in gran fondos or cyclotourist “races” if you want to climb now. That (as well as dozens of other things) further reduces the number or riders willing to pay a licence because in the end races only cater for half the different type of riders and so the downward spiral continues. Ironically, the opposite happens at the same time, multiplication of the types of cycling (gravel, e-bike, downhill) but the net result is still dilution for each individual event.Mistermaumau09-02-2026
- Outside Belgium and to a lesser degree The NL, nobody gets aggro for supporting both Wout and Mathieu but that might be because both are appreciated not only for their performances but also for almost everything else, neither can be labelled the bad guy or weakling or frustrated or moaner, etc. We choose our favourites according to many criteria, sometimes even contradictory or hypothetically. Going back to the wrist, will someone who considered it a big handicap then please explain to me how it prevents a well-paid pro with motivation from continuing effective adapted training? The moment he crashed he’d already been in top shape quite a while. According to himself he was indoor training (and running, core, etc.) a week later so couldn’t have lost much fitness. Maybe he raced a bit less but he was also worried he’d raced too much early on and was kind of relieved to have to take a “break”. Again, the injury alone didn’t justify the resulting time gap, something else was probably also below par but it’s unlikely we’ll ever know what.Mistermaumau09-02-2026
- Not going to read in detail, particularly because I’m involved with amateur clubs in similar situations and don’t want to mix up differing precise rules and definitions but it seems to me this situation would vastly improve if the UCI would impose a registration date ahead of the transfer period. That way, riders (and (other) teams) would know where they stand in time. Can anyone provide reasons why this would be counterproductive?Mistermaumau09-02-2026
- Timing is a bummer. When it rains it pours. That said, you have to admit bike team coaches stick around relatively long, often longer than riders themselves. I don’t know how many e.g. Raducanu has gone through in the half the time but it must be pretty close to the amount of underwear.Mistermaumau09-02-2026
- Yes, the pundits do like to talk up injuries, and rivalries. I wish they would let fans support both Wout and Tadej, for instance, without making it seem one has to choose between the two.Hills3309-02-2026
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