{"id":139875,"date":"2026-08-03T19:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/139875\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T19:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:06:12","slug":"toon-aerts-season-ends-after-crash-in-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/139875\/","title":{"rendered":"Toon Aerts&#8217; Season Ends After Crash in Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/toon-aerts\" title=\"Toon Aerts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toon Aerts<\/a> had been enjoying an excellent road season with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/lotto-intermarche\" title=\"Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9<\/a>. The Belgian was also riding strongly at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/tour-of-denmark\" title=\"Tour of Denmark\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tour of Denmark<\/a>, but his luck changed dramatically during the final stage. Aerts crashed heavily in the sprint, although he was still able to get back on his bike and cross the finish line. Subsequent medical examinations have now revealed the full extent of the cyclocross rider\u2019s injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Aerts made an excellent start to the season, with his results including fourth place on Stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya. That performance helped him earn a place on the start line at the Tour of Flanders, where he finished 33rd, before making his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d\u2019Italia. Aerts demonstrated his quality there with ninth place on the final stage, while the biggest highlight was his second-place finish in Novi Ligure.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old cyclocross specialist and road racer continued to perform well at the Tour of Denmark. He was unable to challenge for the result on the opening day, but came close to victory on Stage 2 and eventually finished third. Sixteenth and seventh places over the following days meant it was still developing into an impressive race for the Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 fast man, who had hoped to finish the week on another positive note.<\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/a-hard-crash-marred-the-final-stage-of-the-tour-of-denmark-where-wout-van-aert-and-pedersen-celebrated\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">things went wrong in the final stage<\/a>. Aerts went down heavily alongside a large group of riders inside the final 500 metres. He was able to remount and reach the finish, allowing him to secure 16th place in the final general classification. Aerts was clearly in considerable pain, however, and required further medical examinations after the race. The resulting diagnosis was a serious one.<\/p>\n<p>Read more below the video!<\/p>\n<p>Aerts sidelined after Tour of Denmark crashLotto-Intermarch\u00e9 announced the injury in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LottoIntermarch\/status\/2084280667190276253\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">press release on X<\/a>. \u201cToon Aerts sustained a double fracture of the kneecap and a scaphoid fracture following a crash in the final stage of the Tour of Denmark. He will undergo surgery this week.\u201d The injuries mean that the Belgian\u2019s 2026 road season has come to a premature end.<\/p>\n<p>Cyclocross supporters can take some encouragement from the team\u2019s projected recovery schedule. \u201cHis return to competition is expected in late October for the cyclocross season, as originally planned. Despite this abrupt end, we are extremely proud of Toon\u2019s first WorldTour season and wish him a speedy recovery,\u201d the Belgian team concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toon Aerts had been enjoying an excellent road season with Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9. The Belgian was also riding strongly at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[2813,67216,27,26,67218,67217,65775],"class_list":["post-139875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-cycling","tag-cyclo-cross","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-lotto-intermarche","tag-toon-aerts","tag-tour-of-denmark"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117033145963287619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}