Visma look into the causes for Wout van Aert's 2024 crashes - "He was the only one to fall in a place where he had been several times before. How is that possible?"
Cycling
Wout van Aert's 2024 season was hellish and much of that due to the constant crashes that have not only hindered him from getting results, but provided several obstacles to improving his form and quality. The situation became bad enough that Team Visma | Lease a Bike began analyzing what was the cause behind the Belgian's mishaps.
"It happened so often that it wouldn't have been right if we had dismissed it as just bad luck," DS Mathieu Heijboer said in conversation with NOS. "The crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen could not have been prevented, but during the crash in the Tour de France he was riding alone at the front and misjudged a bend. If he had been a bit more concentrated there, he would have kept that bend".
The Belgian experienced a spring-ending crash in the very same race he starts this Wednesday, which took him out of the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Giro d'Italia. At the Tour de France he crashed, at the Olympic Games he fell after matching Mathieu van der Poel on the climbs; and then after regaining his best form he also crashed out of the Vuelta a España after winning three stages and carrying both points and KOM jerseys into the final week. Not only physically but mentally it has taken a toll, and when it comes to positioning van Aert seems to be struggling during the ongoing season.
"Another example was the crash at the Olympic Games, where he was in the group with Van der Poel. There too he was the only one to fall in a place where he had been several times before. How is that possible?" Heijboer questions. "Also a bit of loss of concentration at that moment."
Today at Dwars door Vlaanderen van Aert has his final opportunity to show good legs ahead of the Tour of Flanders, after struggling through the E3 Saxo Classic where he wasn't able to be in contention for a top result. "He was able to really rest and he feels better about it now. But of course, it's mainly the classics in which he has to do it. Those are such specific competitions, you can't imitate them," he concluded.
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— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) April 2, 2025
Gearing up for today’s important race! 🇧🇪😎 pic.twitter.com/UZWANe1vFa
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- He is boring
leedorney08-11-2026 - To Twoje przemyślenia te bla, bla :)
Dariusz08-11-2026 - Uwielbiam patrzeć, jak wyjeżdża na czoło peletonu i zaczyna się rzeź...Dariusz08-11-2026
- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
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