Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) will open his 2026 road season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 28, eight weeks after fracturing his right ankle in a cyclocross crash at Zilvermeercross in Mol on January 2. He underwent surgery the following day to stabilise the joint with a screw.
The 31-year-old Belgian returned to outdoor training just nine days post-surgery and was logging six-hour rides and 180 km sessions at the team's collective training camp in Spain by mid-January. He followed that with a three-week altitude block in the Sierra Nevada. While his endurance base appears intact, Van Aert has said he cannot yet sprint at full power and still rides with a brace on the ankle.
In the last few weeks he has been logging impressive Strava training rides, including a 176.7km loop with over 4,000m of climbing on Monday.
Omloop, which Van Aert won the last time he used it as a season opener in 2022, serves as a systems check rather than a form verdict. He has a month between Saturday and his primary April targets.
The team announcement confirms that he leads a squad that includes Christophe Laporte, Axel Zingle and Matthew Brennan, alongside Timo Kielich, Edoardo Affini and Per Strand Hagenes, giving the team a blend of proven Classics firepower, and youthful depth for Omloop Nieuwsblad.
From Tuscany to the cobbles
A shift in Van Aert's 2026 programme is the return to Italian racing. He lines up at Strade Bianche on March 7, a race he won in 2020 but has not entered in five years, before Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo on March 21. That block gives him race stress to compensate for the disrupted winter, and tests sustained power on rough surfaces before the cobbled Monuments.
The Tour of Flanders on April 5 and Paris-Roubaix on April 12 remain the core objectives. Van Aert finished fourth in both last year and wants to arrive with a higher peak of form this time around.
His summer focus is the Tour de France, where Stage 1 on July 4 is a 19 km team time trial in Barcelona with individual timing. That format suits Van Aert's engine and gives him a realistic shot at the yellow jersey while supporting Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) in the team's broader GC campaign.
Later in the season, Van Aert plans to race the Vuelta a España as preparation for the World Championships in Montreal, where he will share Belgian leadership with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-step).
Whether Van Aert contests the sharp accelerations on the Muur and Bosberg on Saturday, or rides conservatively through them, will be the first data point on the ankle.
Cover image credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
