Wout van Aert has fallen ill a week before the start of the Tour de France, his team Visma-Lease a Bike reports. As a result, he will not participate in the Belgian road race championship on Sunday.
“Wout developed symptoms of illness on Saturday evening, and after a medical evaluation this morning, it was decided to withdraw him from the race,” Visma-Lease a Bike wrote in a medical update on X on Sunday morning.
Visma-Lease a Bike has not disclosed whether the thirty-year-old Van Aert has been severely affected. In recent weeks, he was at a high-altitude training camp in the French ski resort of Tignes in preparation for the Tour de France. He has not raced since the final stage of the Giro d’Italia on June 1.
It remains to be seen whether Van Aert will be fit in time for the Tour, which starts on Saturday in Lille. The Belgian all-rounder is expected to help Jonas Vingegaard secure a third overall victory in the world’s biggest cycling race. He will probably also be allowed to go for stage wins.
Van Aert has won nine Tour stages so far, but his last stage victory dates back to 2022. Last year, he was on the podium in a Tour stage three times, but never on the highest step. In 2023, this even happened to him four times. Then he left the Tour prematurely due to the birth of his second son.