Wout van Aert withdraws from Tour de France after elbow infection fails to heal in time

The injury timeline

Wout van Aert crashed during a training ride roughly two weeks before the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes stage race, striking his right elbow. The initial damage appeared manageable, but an infection developed without warning during the race itself. Despite winning the fifth stage, the 31-year-old withdrew before the sixth and spent a night under hospital observation while the wound was cleaned. The infection has not resolved sufficiently, and the team concluded on Wednesday that starting the Tour de France at full capacity is not feasible.

A blow to Visma's yellow-jersey ambitions

Van Aert's absence strips Jonas Vingegaard of his most trusted road captain and all-round support rider. The Dane is chasing a third Tour title and a Giro-Tour double, facing Tadej Pogacar, who has won the last two editions. Van Aert was also pencilled in as a critical engine for the team time trial in Barcelona on stage one, where seconds lost on Montjuïc could shape the general classification from the opening day. Sports director Marc Reef said the team examined every option but ultimately prioritised the rider's health.

The Tour de France is one of my main goals every year. Unfortunately, a crash during training has put a spanner in the works and the injury to my elbow has worsened and has still not healed sufficiently.

Wout is one of the most important riders on our team and we would obviously have loved to have him at the start of the Tour. Over the past few days we have examined all possible options, but his health remains the priority.

A pattern of hard-luck setbacks

This is the latest in a string of physical misfortunes for the Antwerp native. He missed the core of the 2025–2026 cyclocross season with an ankle fracture from a snow crash during a duel with Mathieu van der Poel. The previous year he spent the early months recovering from a deep knee wound sustained against a rock on the road to Lagos de Covadonga at the 2024 Vuelta a España. He still managed a Giro stage win that season, helped Simon Yates to overall victory, and became the only rider to drop Pogacar on a climb in the final Paris stage.

What comes next

Van Aert will now focus entirely on recovery, aiming to return to his best level later in the summer. The Vuelta a España is confirmed on his calendar, where he intends to contest the red jersey in the opening days before targeting stage wins en route to the world championships in Montreal. Visma-Lease a Bike will name his Tour replacement on 23 June when the definitive selection is announced. The team has emphasised that a high-calibre substitute will step in, having prepared a wider group of riders for exactly this contingency.

The wider Tour landscape shifts

Van Aert's withdrawal removes one of the peloton's most versatile stage hunters. He has won ten Tour stages and the points classification in 2022, and his April victory at Paris-Roubaix, beating Pogacar in a final sprint, confirmed he had returned to peak form. His absence reshapes the tactical balance: Vingegaard loses his best flat-land and mountain support rider, while Pogacar's UAE team gains momentum from an in-form Isaac Del Toro, who won the final two stages and the overall at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.