Wout van Aert was instantly affected by the collision; his jersey was ripped to pieces, he had severe road rash on his back, and his numerous fractures hurt a great deal. It took a moment for the enormity of the situation to sink in.
Van Aert’s body started to spasm in sobbing when it did. An x-ray was not necessary for him to understand what his damaged heart already knew. His 2024 Classics campaign came to an end here, on a lonely road outside Ronse, 67km from the finish line of Dwars door Vlaanderen, rather than in victory on the Roubaix velodrome.
It was difficult to discern if Van Aert’s agony was due to the pain of his injuries or the passing of a dream as his guttural cry could be heard on television, even above the bewildered and ecstatic babbling of the commentary team. It was also difficult to avoid thinking of Sean Kelly and a comparable poignant occasion during a pivotal period in his career.
Van Aert has been compared to Kelly on some of his most spectacular rides, those afternoons when nothing seemed to be out of the reach of the most skillful rider in the race. Maybe it made sense that on Van Aert’s worst day as well, there would be a similarity between them.
For Kelly, the 1987 Tour de France served as a sort of farewell tour as a contender for the yellow jersey. The Irishman started one of the most open Tours in living memory from Berlin as the closest thing to a favorite, with Greg LeMond absent and Bernard Hinault retiring. On stage 12, not far from Brive, he suffered a fractured collarbone in a low-speed collision that brought an end to his effort. He fought for an hour, then gave in to exhaustion and got off.
