ProTeam Toon Aerts patiently works towards comeback after serious knee injury

“The first thing I thought was: just get back up, so at least they can see on television back home that everything is okay.” And that is exactly what Toon Aerts did when he crashed in the finale of stage five of the Tour of Denmark in Rødovre in early August. Aerts got back on his bike, rolled across the finish line together with Lionel Taminiaux and even managed to ride over the kerb on his way to the team bus. “It was only when I got onto the bus that I realised the pain wasn’t superficial, but was coming from inside.” The diagnosis was significant: examinations revealed a fractured scaphoid in his wrist and damage to his kneecap. A broken-off fragment and several cracks in the kneecap could be repaired with two screws. “It was still surgery, of course, but all of that was manageable. The real problem only came two weeks later, when I suddenly developed an infection in my knee.”

Bowling ball

What initially appeared to be a superficial infection of the surgical wound quickly proved to be much more serious. “Ten days after that first operation, I had to go back for a check-up to have the stitches removed from my knee. The day before, I already wasn’t feeling great. Things would improve for a few days and then suddenly get worse again. I felt that something wasn’t right, and that was confirmed when I developed a fever some time later. In the space of one night, I went from having a knee that barely hurt anymore to one that was as swollen as a bowling ball. I ended up back in hospital through the emergency department.”

Another operation followed, and the progress Aerts had made in the first days after his crash was undone. “Mentally, that isn’t easy. You make progress and then suddenly you have a major setback. But a rider without a functioning knee isn’t much of a rider. My knee has remained stiffer than expected after the different operations. There is still a lot of work to do before I can get back to turning the pedals properly.”

Rehabilitation six days a week

Almost ten weeks after the crash in Denmark, Aerts’ bike is still necessarily on the sidelines. Six days a week, he works on his recovery with the physiotherapist and in the swimming pool. “Sunday is the only day I get to rest (laughs). Three times a week I have two sessions with the physiotherapist, and recently we also started doing exercises in the pool. I’m constantly working on mobility, stretching and flexibility. Some sessions last two to three hours, which can make the progress feel painfully slow. When you spend so many hours on it every day, you sometimes feel as though things aren’t moving forward quickly enough. Fortunately, when I look at the videos we regularly make here, I can see that there really is progress. I’ve also lost a lot of muscle mass. I felt like my body fat percentage was going through the roof, but when I stepped on the scales, it turned out I had lost four kilograms. Pure muscle, of course. Everything has to be built back up again.”

And so, for now, Toon Aerts is having to put his cyclocross autumn and winter on hold. Last weekend, he attended the team presentation of Charles Liégeois Roastery CX, the cyclocross team he races for during the winter. But getting back into the mud himself is not yet an option. “After my first full WorldTour season on the road, I had already decided to reduce my cyclocross programme a little. Last season I did 27 cyclocross races, whereas this winter I had 17 planned. Back when I was a full-time cyclocross rider, I even did 40. The idea was mainly to race the World Cups and the big, tough cyclocross races, while still leaving enough time to get the training hours in for the road. I wanted to find a different balance and shift my focus back to the road earlier. Obviously, the crash has now partly disrupted that plan.”

World Championships in Ostend 

Aerts therefore does not want to put a specific date on his cyclocross comeback. “I probably won’t get back to 110 percent of my ability this winter. My first priority now is to recover completely. Once I’m fit again, we can see what is left of the winter. At the same time, I need a goal. I don’t want to give up hope of racing the Cyclocross World Championships in Ostend just yet. I already won World Championship bronze on that same course in 2021, although because of the Covid restrictions it was a championship without spectators. A World Championships in my own country, on a course where I’ve already won a medal: I would really love to be there again. If I have to miss it, that would be a real shame. If it doesn’t work out, then so be it, and we’ll work towards a good spring on the road instead. But I have to keep believing that I can still race some nice cyclocross events this winter and hopefully earn a spot on the World Championships team.”

While waiting to see what the cyclocross winter might still bring, Aerts can in any case look back on an impressive road season. In his first year at WorldTour level, he exceeded his own expectations, with his second place on stage twelve of the Giro d’Italia standing out in particular. “Without Alec Segaert, I would simply have won a stage in my first Grand Tour (laughs). It’s the highlight of everything I’ve done on the road so far. Before the season, I thought I would mainly be riding in support of the team and occasionally get the chance to go for a result myself. But I was given my own opportunities several times and managed to make the most of them. Finishing in the top ten in Catalonia and then taking second in a Giro stage: I didn’t expect that beforehand. And then there was my first Tour of Flanders, my first Paris-Roubaix… I enjoyed those races enormously. That’s something I can draw strength from during my rehabilitation as well, because all of that will come around again.”

Watch the YouTube video here.

Picture & video: Cyclingmedia_agency