Wout van Aert returned to the scene of the horror crash from last season's Dwars door Vlaanderen, screaming in agony as the classic season came to a painful end. 

The Belgians were part of the large Visma-Lease A Bike group, who knew the hills and cobblestone roads of Flanders well on the 97km route at Audenard, the end of their tour of Flanders.

During a ride in Strava, where Van Aalto captioned the route "Everything is beautiful", he and his teammates incorporated famous bergs such as Wolvenberg, Molenberg, Valkenberg, Ude Kwalemont and Putterberg.

But it is the run to Kanarieberg that stood out on the route of Visma, as a sweeping, fast road preceding the start of the climb, N48 (Ninoofsesteenweg), where Van Aert crashed violently in May and broke his collarbone and ribs. 

Canalieberg is also where his team・mates Matteo Jorgenson and Teiji Benut entered the winning motion at the Dwarves Door Vlaanderen before the Americans had a bittersweet victory.

They were both on board with Olav Kooij, Christophe Laporte, Dylan van Baarle, Per Strand Hagenes, several new young signings, Loe van Belle, Matthews Brennan, Menno Huising and u-23 world champion Niklas Behrens.

It was a typically wet Flemish day on the cobblestones, a "kick-off" to the 2025 classic for Van Aert, who wants better luck coming next spring, and a clean race in both De Ronde and Paris-Roubaix. 

Last season was characterized by bad luck for Van Aalto, with his return from injury only arriving a month before the start of the Tour de France and he was away from the best of the stage wins in time.

However, after he rediscovered his best leg in his Vuelta a España debut late in the season, he crashed again and suffered a new injury, excluding him from the World Championships in Zurich.

According to Belgian media, a knee injury has also affected him because he is struggling to run and will not be seen in the cyclocross season until next year,

But that discipline was supposed to be something fan Aert does only with the help of his road season, his coach said. The team said last year is the biggest goal for a powerful classic and a versatile Belgium in the new year likely to return to top form at the Tour de France. Will 2025 be the year Van Aalt finally wins Rondo?