“An emotion I’ve rarely felt. It came from so deep...” - Nathan Van Hooydonck on how Wout van Aert’s Paris-Roubaix win finally gave closure after his own forced retirement

There are wins that define a rider’s career. And then there are wins that carry meaning for people who are no longer racing at all. For Nathan Van Hooydonck, watching Wout van Aert finally conquer Paris-Roubaix was not just about seeing a close friend take a long-awaited Monument. It was about something that had been left unfinished.

Van Hooydonck never had the chance to bring his own career to a natural conclusion. A sudden cardiac incident in 2023 forced him to step away from the sport immediately, ending his time in the peloton without warning.

There was no final target, no last campaign built around the Classics, no opportunity to see through the role he had spent years fulfilling inside Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

That role had always been tied to riders like Van Aert. The type of victories he helped build were never his to finish, but they were always part of his purpose.

By the time Roubaix arrived in 2026, Van Hooydonck was no longer in the race convoy as a rider. The environment was familiar, but his position within it had changed completely. Speaking on De Rode Lantaarn, Van Hooydonck admitted: “I was really stressed. I’ve never experienced that before.”

Without the ability to influence the outcome, the experience became one of pure anticipation. The closer Van Aert came to victory, the more the weight of the moment grew. “I always believed. I’ve always believed in Wout. But I wasn’t certain.”

That belief was not without foundation. The last time Tadej Pogacar had been beaten in a major head to head sprint came on the Champs-Elysees at the Tour de France, where Van Aert had come out on top.

When Van Aert made his move against Pogacar in the Roubaix velodrome, the reaction was instinctive. “I saw him launch, then I looked away, and then I looked up again… he already had two metres. I started celebrating far too early.”

What followed was not just celebration, but something deeper. “It’s an emotion I’ve rarely felt. It came from so deep… so special.”

Those words lead into the line that defines his experience of the day. “This has completed my cycling career.”

The meaning of that statement becomes clearer when placed alongside another reflection. “This is something we did, but above all Wout did.”

It captures both sides of the moment. The shared journey that led there, and the individual achievement that ultimately defined it. For Van Hooydonck, that balance is what gives the victory its weight. “This is what I wanted to achieve with him as a rider. That didn’t happen. But in this role, I can still be part of it.”

For years, his work was built around helping deliver exactly this kind of win. Paris-Roubaix was the type of race where that effort would have mattered most.

For Van Aert, the 2026 edition of Paris-Roubaix will always stand as a defining victory. For Van Hooydonck, it serves a different purpose. Not as a replacement for what was lost, but as a way of closing a chapter that never had the chance to end on its own terms.

And that is why, for him, this was never just another win.