Belgian concern grows around Van Aert’s elbow injury
Van Aert’s Tour withdrawal was not presented as a slow, marginal selection call. Vandegoor pointed to how quickly the decision followed the end of the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, where Van Aert had abandoned after five stages.
“The speed with which this decision has been made is striking,” Vandegoor said. “Barely three days after the end of the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, where Van Aert abandoned after five stages.”
De Cauwer reached the same conclusion. “Then we do indeed have to conclude that the wound was worse than we all thought. A blow for Van Aert.”
For Visma, the damage is not limited to losing a rider capable of winning stages. Van Aert is one of the rare figures in the modern peloton who can shape a Grand Tour in several different ways: sprint threat, time trial engine, mountain helper, road captain and public face.
His Paris-Roubaix victory earlier this season had only sharpened that profile. “Wout simply is Visma,” De Cauwer said. “Not only when it comes to winning races, but also towards the press. Since his victory in Paris-Roubaix, he has been more popular than ever. Much more than Vingegaard with his two Tour wins.”
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Van Aert’s absence changes the texture of Visma’s Tour squad. He would have been important in the opening team time trial, on flat and nervous days, and in the long transition stages where Vingegaard’s yellow jersey challenge will need protection before the mountains.
Inside a Grand Tour, De Cauwer sees Van Aert as more than a rider with a race number. “Wout fulfils an important role on the bus, in the hotel, in the peloton and in the race,” he said. “He is the man who brought the motto ‘unity makes strength’ into the team,” De Cauwer added. “Just think of his huge work for Jonas Vingegaard on the Hautacam stage four years ago, and how he paced Simon Yates to Giro victory last year.”
The riders who do start the Tour for Visma may still form a strong support group around Vingegaard. Van Aert leaves a different type of gap: a missing road captain, a missing stage threat and a missing reference point inside one of cycling’s biggest teams.
Canada offers Van Aert a new centrepiece
Van Aert’s Tour is gone, but the World Championships now loom larger over the rest of his season. De Cauwer had already questioned before the elbow issue escalated whether the Tour was really Van Aert’s main target for 2026. His appearance at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes did little to change that view.
“Before his elbow misery, I already had the idea that the Tour was not the most important race of the year for Wout this year,” De Cauwer said. “Wout was not at his sharpest when he appeared at the start of the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes.”
The World Championship road race in Canada now offers the clearest route back into the centre of Van Aert’s season. The condition of his elbow will decide how realistic that target becomes, but missing the Tour could leave him fresher later in the year. “They say every disadvantage has its advantage,” De Cauwer said. “Wout will be fresher at the World Championships.”
Vandegoor sees the rainbow jersey as a serious opportunity if Van Aert reaches the race in full condition. “The World Championship course in Canada is tailor-made for him,” he said. “There is a very big chance there to become world champion.”
Van Aert’s Tour de France is over before it began. Belgium’s concern now sits with the elbow injury that ended his July plans, but Canada may yet give the rest of his season a very different finish.