Wout van Aert enjoys first shower in 12 days as wounds heal

After a week of bad news for Visma-Lease a Bike that included Jonas Vingegaard's Itzulia Basque Country crash and Dylan van Baarle's Paris-Roubaix DNS, Wout van Aert's Strava post on Monday morning will have come as sweet relief.

Capturing the Belgian's 5.55km walk from his home in Herentals, Belgium, Van Aert posted the activity with the caption, 'First shower in 12 days 🥳🚿🩹❌,' expressing his delight at being able to stand underneath running water once again.

It must have been a long two weeks for the 29-year-old, who will have no doubt been dressed in all manner of bandages and supports to address multiple fractures of his sternum, ribs and one of his collarbones.

The crash saw him leave Dwars door Vlaanderen in the back of an ambulance and ruled him out of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, whilst his attendance at the Giro d'Italia was thrown into major doubt.

Read more: Wout van Aert's Giro d'Italia participation still in the balance

At this point, no judgement has been made on the latter by his team, but sources in Belgium suggest that the first Grand Tour of the year remains a possibility. For the time being, however, all of Van Aert's energy is focused on the recovery of his day-to-day life, which now finally includes a shower once more.

Monday's activity was the third walk that Van Aert has uploaded to Strava since his crash, each showing the Belgian completing a circa 5km out-and-back route, the first of which was captioned 'to stand still is to go backwards.' On Sunday, Van Aert was rather tongue in cheek, entitling his activity a 'Sunday not in hell,' referencing his Paris-Roubaix absence.

With Van Baarle also forced to withdraw from the Queen of the Classics, Visma-Lease a Bike went into Sunday's race without a big favourite to challenge Alpecin-Deceuninck's Mathieu van der Poel.

But whilst the Dutchman was able to claim his second title in as many years, Visma-Lease a Bike were well represented throughout and placed Tim and Mick van Dijke in 16th and 19th place, respectively. It could have been even better had the former not been relegated from eighth due to an irregular sprint in the Roubaix velodrome.

Read more: Richard Plugge: Departure of 'instrumental' Merijn Zeeman is 'very sad news' for Visma-Lease a Bike

A day before Paris-Roubaix, Van Aert made his first public comment since the horrific high-speed crash that brought broken bones to many who were involved.

"9 days post surgery and I start to feel a little bit like myself again 🙏🏼 I hope to be back on my bike soon but at this moment a full recovery of my wounds and broken bones has my absolute priority. I am grateful for the extra time I get to spend with my loved ones 🌊 🏖️ ☀️," he wrote on Instagram.

"I want to thank everyone that took care of me after my crash; my wife, kids, family, friends, team, the doctors, nurses, therapists,… But I can’t point out enough how overwhelming the support is from all of you. I never received more messages, presents, mails,… This made me smile more and suffer less 😊 Thank you x1000 🥰"

Should Van Aert need to miss the Giro d'Italia, he will have to alter his plans to prepare for the Olympic Games in Paris, which were reliant on the 29-year-old riding the Italian Grand Tour. Visma-Lease a Bike's provisional Tour de France squad, meanwhile, has already been announced and has yet to be altered at the time of writing.

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