Wout van Aert's management are still not ruling out that the Belgian's much-anticipated next cyclocross duel against Mathieu van der Poel on Friday at Loenhout will go ahead despite Van Aert cancelling his first race of the 2024-25 season on Monday because of illness.
Van Aert had been expected to make his 2024 cyclocross debut at Mol on Monday where Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) stormed to a second victory in as many days, but the Belgian was a DNS because of stomach 'flu.
However, the next clash between the two top names in the speciality, at the Exact Cross at Loenhout, does not appear to be in danger despite Van Aert getting sick, Belgian and Dutch media reported Monday.
"The illness took hold [on Saturday] and Wout felt really bad," Van Aert's manager Jef Van Den Bosch told Het Laatste Nieuws on Monday. "There was nothing he could do."
"[But] it's now a matter of recovering and taking it day by day."
According to Wielerflits, his trade team Visma-Lease a Bike sounded cautiously optimistic, with sports director Jan Boven telling the Dutch website "We don't know much more than what we announced yesterday [Sunday]. Only that he woke up this morning feeling reasonably well. [He's] certainly better than the day before, it's now a matter of recovering."
Van Aert has had some important setbacks over the last year because of crashes and injuries, and Boven admitted that "He was really looking forward to it [racing]."
"You have to put those plans on hold, but when you've been sick for a whole day, you know that there's no other option."
While Boven ruled out the idea that Van Aert might add more races to his program as a result of the illness, prior to Friday's clash, arch-rival Van der Poel will have had another opportunity to go for a win, on December 26 in the second round of the World Cup series, at Gavere, Belgium. Quite apart from Van der Poel's current top form, after triumphing in the last two editions of the Gavere race and four times since 2016 it almost goes without saying the reigning cyclocross World Champion will be the top favourite on Thursday.
