“Dad, are you going to win too?" - New Visma documentary shows heart-warming moment between Wout van Aert and his son during 2024 Tour de France

Friday, 09 August 2024 at 16:56

Wout van Aert worked incredibly hard without much tangible reward at the 2024 Tour de France. After a spring ending crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen earlier in the year, the Belgian superstar wasn't quite at the level required to add another stage win to his palmares.

In the new, Team Visma | Lease a Bike documentary posted to the team's official YouTube channel and titled "A True Renaissance: Our Tour de France 2024 - Inside the Beehive," the struggle of Van Aert during the most recent trip around France can be seen in a whole new light.

Read also

"It was Wout's explicit wish to ride the Vuelta after the Tour" - Visma will help Wout van Aert to win again at Vuelta a Espana

The signs early on were positive for Van Aert as he won the bunch sprint for 3rd on stage 1 as Team DSM-Firmenich duo Romain Bardet and Frank Van den Broek held off the peloton for a famous victory, with the former in his final ever Tour de France. “It meant my return to the highest level,” Van Aert reflects of his stage 1 efforts in the documentary.

Sadly though, that near miss was a sign of things to come for Van Aert over the next three weeks. "I also quickly lose my confidence and that is frustrating," he confesses, not helped by a frustration with compatriot and sprint rival Jasper Philipsen. "I lost by half a wheel and had to keep the pedals still. Would I have won if I had not been hindered? Yes, of course."

Van Aert's struggles are quickly put into perspective however, when the Belgian superstar facetimes his son on a phone call home following a stage where he took a trip to the French tarmac. “Dad, are you going to win too?”, his son asks over the phone. “I don’t know right now,” Van Aert laughs. “Dad had slipped and hurt himself, but everything is fine.”

See the full documentary in the video down below!