'Today is the day' - Wout van Aert ends six month drought with Vuelta a España stage triumph

Overall ranking leader Team Visma's Wout van Aert puts the red jersey on as he celebrates on the podium after winning the stage 3 of La
Overall ranking leader Team Visma's Wout van Aert puts the red jersey on as he celebrates on the podium after winning the stage 3 of La (Image credit: Getty Images)

Eindelijk! - finally! - was the single-word headline Belgian sports news agency Sporza used to describe Wout van Aert's victory in the Vuelta a España on Monday, and after one of the longest gaps of his career between wins, eindelijk surely summed up perfectly how Van Aert must have felt after his latest triumph, too.

Several factors have likely played their part in Van Aert's 2024 dearth of victories. But his terrible fall in Dwars door Vlaanderen this April, which sidelined the badly injured Belgian for the Giro d'Italia and only saw the Visma-Lease a Bike rider return to racing in late June, was almost certainly one of the biggest.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.

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