Visma | Lease a Bike casts doubt on Van Aert's comeback: "He's not ahead of schedule, let's put it that way"

IDLProCycling.com spoke with Boven in Dublin. In recent weeks and days, it has been revealed that Van Aert is struggling with a "running deficit" due to his nasty crash in the Vuelta a Espana. On the bike, things are improving for the Dutch team superstar, but while running, the knee still seems a bit sore here and there.

Via Strava, we can already see that the training sessions intensified last week, between the team and media days of Visma | Lease a Bike. Next week, the team will head to Spain for its first training camp. After that, we may welcome Van Aert to the cyclo-cross competition.

Can Boven reveal something more? "No, there is no additional information," said the man from Groningen. "He is not ahead of schedule; let me put it this way. Our plan with Wout is already clear, and little has changed." By the way, Boven does not make the decisions; Van Aert does that in consultation with his trainer, Mathieu Heijboer. They communicate the signals to Boven, who heard positive things as the cyclo-cross team leader. "But when we announce something, you will read it on the team's site. I can't tell you anything about that here right now."

For Van der Poel, we should expect something shortly, too. Sports director Christoph Roodhooft said in Antwerp that something would be communicated last week, but to date, Alpecin-Deceuninck has not provided any clarity. However, it is only a matter of time before we hear something from the world champion's team.