“On September 15th, for his thirtieth birthday, he will be able to do something different…” This is how Belgian TV commentators announce the end of the season for Wout van Aert. And it was the news that every cycling fan would never have wanted to hear. The season is over and it is not clear whether it is a bad thing or a good thing because, a season like this is perhaps better to end quickly, better to put it behind you, better to think that it was just a bad dream from which to wake up and then breathe a sigh of relief. “Wout van Aert will not race again this year – reads a note from Visma – he needs time to recover from the accident at the Vuelta. He suffered a serious knee injury that will require intensive care. He remains in hospital in Belgium where he will receive intravenous antibiotics to minimize the risk of infection. Then he will take a break to fully recover before cautiously aiming for next season”. The end. The end of a black year for the Belgian champion who, in the Vuelta that saw him “resurrect”, fell again. He ended up on the ground a few days ago in the sixteenth stage from Luanco to Covadonga Lakes, on a left bend going down from the Collada Llomena about forty kilometers from the finish line. He had tried to start again but the photos of him in tears sitting on the trunk of the team car with a bleeding knee were already half a sentence. Which arrived in full today and is unfortunately a verdict without appeal that removes this champion from the game, that excludes him from a European and a World Championship that would have certainly seen him among the protagonists. A shame for him and a shame for everyone because Van Aert is cycling’s heritage and a race without Van Aert is a race that loses something. More than something. The Belgian is the essence of a courageous cycling that never makes too many calculations. A cycling of class, intuition and power capable of having its say in a sprint but also uphill, in a breakaway, in a time trial… Everywhere. However it is and however it goes, Van Aert in the race is always great news for all cycling fans. And he is missed when he is not there. He was missed in Flanders, in Roubaix because his duels with Mathieu Van der Poel are the added value of epic and fascinating challenges. He was missed in the Giro d’Italia and by the fans who couldn’t wait to follow him on our roads, to applaud him and admire him, to stand up to Tadej Pogacar in some stage. And what it means when he is there was understood in the time trials of the Paris Olympics and in these days on the Spanish roads that saw him win three stages, wear the points jersey and that of best climber. Win or lose it makes little difference. It is important that Van Aert is there in the race. Because he adds, he inflames, because you know that he tries and that he can make that difference that by a strange will of fate maybe he doesn’t. It’s important that Van Aert is in the race because when he’s there you always know that something can happen, even if something often happens to him and not always for the best, because he punctures, skids, falls… But if it doesn’t happen, Van Aert is always worth the price of the ticket: where can you find someone who wins in the sprint and then leaves everyone behind on Mont Ventoux?