57 days after his 2024 season was put on hold due to a brutal crash at dwars door Vlaanderen, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) has finally returned to the Race Peloton in Stage 1 of the Tour of Norway on Thursday. But it was not a return to full normality for the Belgian star. After recovering from a fractured collarbone, ribs and sternum, rather than competing for victory as he would probably have a pre-crash, Van Art had to "just ride there and suffer in a bunch."

Van Aalto was 4th in the line, after finishing his job for Bertrenmen, went down 60th place in the stage winner Tibaunis (Lidl-Trek), 2:52. 

This result did not fall short of the expectations that Fan Art or Visma Rees-a-Bike had for the first race, but the champion born of Fan Art was a bit disappointed.

"It may be worth noting that I am not very happy because I did not want to suffer like this. But I need to ride it now," Van Aert told Sporza after the stage.

"It's not a normal feeling to just ride there and suffer in the Peloton, but I know this is a part of it for now.

Van Aalto narrowly avoided the disaster to the Vos Resort in the end when he hit the rear wheels of the Uno・X rider, 2.1 km from the line. After already feeling the pain that helped put his teammates in place, he decided to stop the effort.

"It worked very well. It was a welcome controlled race. It was a tough course. I'm happy with how it went," Van Aert summed up the day to the Belgian media.

"I tried to keep everyone's position in the finals, but it was busy. We didn't always stay together completely. I wanted to get them at least within 1.5 km of the line, but I tapped the rider in front of me and lost momentum.

"I then decided to let go. From the start of the final climb, it was already at its limit for me. I could feel in my lungs that it had been a long time since I had gone so deep."

Today's stage ends with another, more difficult uphill test to Gullingen, with an average 8.7% 5.5 km climb. It is not a day for Van Aalt to compete, but in 2024 he still got some hard races on his feet to rebuild his rhythm for the goal, and another big

"from training, we knew that we should not be afraid to sit on the bike for 3.5 hours. It may sound a bit hesitant because it often comes later to feel what I'm doing," Van Aert said.

"Things can only get better from now on." Fortunately, I had no problems with the bike and hopefully I can recover well now.

Van Aalto is now vying for a spot in Bismarck's Tour de France team after a crash in Belgium excluded him from other classics and forced him to pull out before making his Giro d'etalia debut.

Team boss Richard Plugge recently told Cyclingnews that the team "is very hopeful that Wout will come to the Tour de France.""But it largely depends on how he will progress on the tour of Norway in the 36 days until the grand departure in Florence.

If not on the tour, Van Aart wants to return to the maximum for the Paris Olympics and will take part in time trials and road races on the 27th and 3rd.