Outside the Visma Lease-a-Bike bus in Arnuelo on Wednesday afternoon, Directeur Sportif Grischa Niermann had a few words for Wout Van Aert's latest setback in the 2024 season. Nearman said resignedly, “There's a saying that the Tour waits for no one, and apparently the Vuelta waits for no one.”

And of course, the same goes for the UCI Road World Championships. After crashing on the downhill of the Colada Lomena at the Vuelta a España on Tuesday afternoon, Van Aert was wondering before he was rushed to the hospital whether he would make it to the road race world championships in Zurich on September 29.

Even though initial tests on Wednesday morning revealed that Van Aert had no broken bones, the situation was far from clear. He was scheduled to return to Belgium for further diagnosis at Herentals, the same hospital where he underwent surgery for a broken collarbone in March and ended his Classics campaign.

“He had to spend the night in the hospital. 'Fortunately, he doesn't seem to have any broken bones at the moment. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] But at the moment he is not in the best shape.”

Van Aert's crash on stage 16 occurred after he was leading on the Colada Lomena climb. He was following Felix Engelhardt (Jayco Alura) on the descent when Engelhardt's wheel slipped in a slippery corner. Van Aert tried to avoid Engelhardt and fell, injuring his knee.

The descent of the Colada Lilomena already had a certain notoriety, as the red-jerseyed eccentric Christian Ike had crashed when the Vuelta passed this way in 2021, but Niermann felt that neither the route nor Engelhardt were responsible.

“Apparently it happened in the same place they crashed in 2021,” Nierman said. This is a very dangerous descent, especially the part before the crash.”

“On the road where the crash actually occurred, the road was already dry and normal. Of course, it was a technical downhill, but this time it was a real shame.

“The rider in front of Wout crashed and slid. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]