Wout van Aert crashes again just two days into return in Norway: "But I didn't hurt myself”

Returning to racing for the first time since a nasty crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen saw his plans for the Spring and a Giro d'Italia debut called off through injury, Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Wout van Aert has again suffered a crash on stage 2 of the 2024 Tour of Norway.

“I fell because a teammate hit someone else's wheel," details the 29-year-old in his post-stage interview with VTM. Thankfully, having not suffered any serious injuries, van Aert was able to remount his bike and get himself across the line 91st place, over ten minutes down on the eventual stage winner, Alpecin-Deceuninck's Axel Laurance. "An oversight, I could no longer avoid the fall, but I didn't hurt myself.”

Having come to Norway with no intentions to ride for stages or the general classification himself, van Aert isn't too concerned about being 80th overall now 13:34 down on Laurance, who after his stage win also moved into the overall race lead.

Despite the crash then, it was another all-in-all positive day for van Aert on his road back to full fitness following that nasty spring-ending crash earlier in the year. “It went quite well,” Van Aert agreed. “I enjoyed the view. (laughs) Furthermore, the legs turned the way I wanted.”