Jumbo-Visma: Wout has COVID, Officially Out for Flanders

Up-update...

UPDATE!!

Translation: Wout van Aert possibly in Tour of Flanders after all

Rumblings are that Wout told the team he is feeling much better today, and the team has remained officially noncommittal on replacing him for Sunday. So stay tuned!

You have probably heard the news already today. This is about all we know:

It feels like every year this happens: someone is ill, or there is a crash, or whatever it is, we rarely get the full battle royale that we were hoping for at the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Remember Boonen vs Cancellara in 2010? That was after two years of Cancellara struggling and unable to be at his best for de Ronde. Then they repeated in 2011, only for Cancellara to crash out in 2012 (when Boonen went crazy) and Boonen to go missing in 2013 (when Cancellara went Bananas). And that was about it.

Van Aert was considered the favorite by sane people and gamblers alike. Unibet has him at 3.25 to 1 now, and perhaps it has been adjusted because Mathieu van der Poel is now listed at the same rate. Originally we did not expect to get the Wout-Matti rivalry this year. Now we get half, just like we thought, except the other half. Obviously Sonny Colbrelli, the reigning Paris-Roubaix champion, is out as well. Christophe Laporte is second-favorite at 6.50, followed by Kasper Asgreen and Tadej Pogacar at 7.00.

They did say “unlikely” and not “out” so fingers crossed. Hear more from his DS Grischa Niermann: