In 2024, after the accident at the Vuelta, the Belgian took a holiday in the Dolomites: he recounted the episode in a podcast
A fine of 300 euros arrived from Trentino for… having made a mistake in disposing of the crutches! This is what happened to Wout Van Aert, an episode that the Belgian himself told on the Wielerclub Wattage podcast, recalling that period at the end of 2024 when he was recovering from the injury that had forced him to withdraw from the Vuelta. “At the beginning I was in a lot of pain – the words of the 31-year-old from Visma -. I couldn’t rest on my knee or bend it. After about three weeks I felt better and I decided to leave for a short holiday with my wife in the Dolomites. It did me a lot of good and I was even getting to the point of no longer needing crutches. And during the journey back to the airport I started to feel really fed up and I thought: I’ll throw the crutches here in the bin. It was also a symbolic gesture for me. We stopped in a parking lot along the road and I actually threw the crutches in a recycling bin, because I thought it was the most suitable. Since I also found it a funny moment, I asked Sarah to film it. Suddenly, however, we received a fine in the mail. It was a fine quite a nuisance after a nice trip. Apparently they had filmed us with a camera and perhaps that footage didn’t help…”.
