Wout Van Aert detailed his memories of the horrific crash at the Doire de Flanderen that fractured his collarbone, seven ribs, and sternum, ending his Spring Classics campaign and forcing him to skip his scheduled Giro d'Italia debut.

The Belgian star spoke as the central figure in Visma-Lease a Bike's new documentary, The Spring Classics: ROAD TO RESILIENCE - Inside The Beehive, released yesterday on YouTube, It provides a unique insight into the team's first half of the season.

Beginning with VanArt's crash, which occurred 67 km from the finish of the One Day Classic, the film shows the moments leading up to the crash, including pre-race team meetings, reactions from the team cars, and race footage of the accident itself.

"Sheesh. This is the end of the spring classics. ...... No Giro either," said Visma's Directeur Sportif, Grischa Niermann, shortly after the crash. [Of course, at first I was very shocked. 'I immediately decided to go to the side of the road. When I tried to move, I felt something wrong with my shoulder and my back." [I was in tremendous pain until I got some strong medicine at the hospital, so the first half hour was really bad."

Jorgenson's solo victory was "a small consolation" for the Dutch team, which is heavily handicapped in both the Tour de Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, to know that the road ahead is tough.

"I had mixed feelings from that moment on: a brilliant finale by Tiesj and Matteo for the win. 'But on the other hand, my thoughts also go out to Wout. Along with his wife and family."

"The fracture of the clavicle was almost diagnosed, but an x-ray confirmed it. They said the ribs might be affected, but the next doctor came in and told me I had seven broken ribs and it turned out my sternum was broken as well."

With Van Aert out of the Classic lineup and other top riders Christophe Laporte and Dylan van Baarle suffering from illness and injury, respectively, Wisma went into the first round of the cobbled Monument with a heavily handicapped team.

"The Tour de Flanders was the first day I came home. I'm still trying to see how my teammates are doing."

"It was even harder to avoid racing on the most important Sunday of the year because I really couldn't get out of my chair at that point."

With the Belgian star gone, Wisma was under pressure from longtime rival Mathieu Van der Pol (Alpecin-Desseuninck), who attacked to pull away from Jorgenson and the rest of the pack in Koppenberg with 45km to go.

Exactly one week later in Paris-Roubaix, a similar development took place, with Van der Pol riding alone even further away, 60 km from the famous velodrome. Van Earle was again forced to watch from the sidelines, which was more excruciating than missing his home race.

"I wasn't at home at Roubaud, I was following from afar," he said. 'Maybe that was even more painful. I was still very tired and needed to tend to my wounds.

"I was still away from training, watching one of the most beautiful races of the year. It was the hardest moment mentally of the last few weeks."

VanArt has been giving regular updates during his road to recovery, and his recent first ride outdoors was a major milestone in his rehabilitation. He has gone from walking again to riding a modified mountain bike and most recently a Cervelo Áspero 5 gravel bike.

"According to the people who are mentoring me, my recovery is going well," Van Aert said. It feels great to be back in my cycling shorts again."

"We were soon to be faced with what could have been the best conditions ever, and suddenly we were knocked back to the worst conditions."

No date has been set for Van Aert's return to racing, and his debut at the Giro has been ruled out. While he may compete in the Tour de France, his key remaining goals for the 2024 season will be the Paris Olympics, with road racing and time trials as his objectives.