The cobbles are calling, and Visma is answering with a partially healed Wout van Aert. Meanwhile, the women’s defending champion has been brutally snubbed by her own team.
There is a specific kind of desperation that sets in right before Opening Weekend. It’s the feeling that if you miss Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, your entire spring campaign is already on the back foot. Apparently, that desperation is contagious over at the Visma team. Just weeks after fracturing his ankle, Wout van Aert has been greenlit to start on Saturday.
Is it a medical miracle? Or is it a team in full-blown panic mode after a worryingly quiet winter? Van Aert claims he is pain-free and ready to “test the legs,” but throwing a healing fracture onto the jarring, brutal cobblestones of Flanders feels less like a rehabilitation plan and more like a gamble. With Mathieu van der Poel’s participation still shrouded in mystery (because of course it is), Visma clearly feels they can’t afford to leave their ace in the garage, even if he’s arguably only operating on three reliable limbs.
But the real brutality isn’t happening in the medical tent, it’s happening on the team bus. Lotte Claes, the rider who stunned the field to win Omloop last year, won’t even be at the start line to defend her title. Her team has unceremoniously left her off the roster, a move that Claes admitted she finds “a shame.” In the cutthroat world of the Women’s WorldTour, wearing the number 1 bib apparently doesn’t guarantee you a spot if the sports directors decide you don’t fit the tactical spreadsheet.
So, as we head into the Holy Week of cycling, the narrative is set. We have a superstar racing against medical advice, a defending champion watching from her couch, and the usual gray Belgian sky ready to rain on everyone’s parade. Welcome back to the cobbles.