Wout van Aert’s cyclo-cross campaign still up in the air

The start date of Wout van Aert’s cyclo-cross campaign is still up in the air due to the after effects of the serious knee injury he suffered in September.

Van Aert crashed on stage 16 of the Vuelta a España on a wet descent and abandoned moments later. His Visma-Lease a Bike team later announced that the 29-year-old Belgian had suffered what was described as a "serious" knee injury which would require a combination of "intensive care" and antibiotics. Blood visibly streamed from his knee as he was attended to by Visma staff in the immediate aftermath of the crash.

Visma-Lease a Bike later said that the Belgian’s road season was over for the year and that he would not race again in 2024. It was expected that Van Aert would subsequently not race cyclo-cross until the end of December at the earliest as his recovery continues, although it appears that has now been delayed further with the news that he is still struggling to run. However, he is very much able to cycle, racking up the miles during his road off-season.

As well as on bike training, Belgian outlet Het Laatste Nieuws reported that Van Aert will undertake a combination of different running exercises while at a team training camp in a bid to further strengthen his knee ahead of his CX bow. The team training camp runs until 19 December and the initial hope was that he could ride cyclo-cross soon after.

Van Aert is a three-time CX world champion, although the last of these came in 2018. Last season he won three times in nine races.

Cycling Weekly contacted Visma-Lease a Bike to ask about Van Aert’s recovery and to confirm when he is now expected to begin his winter racing schedule.

Tom Pidcock, another former cyclo-cross world champion, recently refused to commit to racing CX whatsoever this winter. The 25-year-old competed in eight CX races last season, winning one in Namur, but suggested he might not line up at any races whatsoever during this season.

"At the moment no, but possibly," he said when asked if he had any CX plans in the making.

He added: "It has been a long year, I needed a proper break away from everything, but there's a possibility I'll do some races over Christmas and the new year. We can figure out that later."

Pidcock and Van Aert are considered two of the cyclo-cross big three, the other being Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman has won the CX world title for the last two seasons.

Van der Poel’s team have remained silent so far on whether he is likely to appear at any cross races this winter. According to HLN, it is likely that the Dutchman will race some events with an announcement expected to come this week.

Van der Poel was the only one of the 'big three' that lined up at the last worlds in Tábor in the Czech Republic. In the absence of the other two, Joris Nieuwenhuis of the Netherlands and Belgium’s Michael Vanthourenhout took second and third respectively.