Wout van Aert has been ruled out of the World Championships and will not race again this season due to the knee injury he sustained in the crash that ended his Vuelta a España.
Visma-Lease a Bike revealed that the Belgian rider had “suffered a serious knee injury that will require intensive care.”
Van Aert abandoned the Vuelta during stage 16 after injuring his right knee in a crash on the descent of Collada Llomena.
Although initial scans in Spain revealed that Van Aert had sustained no fractures in the crash, he underwent further assessment in hospital in Herentals following his return to Belgium on Wednesday.
“Van Aert stays in the hospital in Belgium, where he will receive intravenous antibiotics to minimise the risk of infection,” Visma-Lease a Bike said.
“He will then take a break to make a full recovery before cautiously setting his sights on the next season.”
Van Aert won three stages of the Vuelta, and he was leading both the points and king of the mountains classification before the crash that forced him out of the race.
The 29-year-old had already endured an interruption to his 2024 season when a heavy crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen ended his Classics campaign prematurely and also ruled him out of a planned Giro d’Italia debut.
After recovering from his injuries, which included a broken collarbone, Van Aert lined out at the Tour de France in support of Jonas Vingegaard and then won a bronze medal in the time trial at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Van Aert proceeded to enjoy a sparkling run of form at the Vuelta. He wore the red jersey of race leader for two days in the opening week and he proceeded to claim a hat-trick of stage wins at Castelo Branco, Cordoba and Baiona.
His performances had confirmed him among the favourites for the World Championships in Zurich, where he would have shared leadership of the Belgian team with Remco Evenepoel, but this latest setback has brought a premature end to his season.
