"Dropping Tadej was exceptional" - Wout van Aert beat Pogacar at the Tour de France, and it changed his career

Wout van Aert is a rider who has had his career recently marked heavily by crashes, and explains the effects it's had on him physically and mentally. Alongside that, in a recent interview, he explained what was going through his mind in the iconic 2025 Tour de France finale, in which he dropped Tadej Pogacar on the Montmartre to then go on to win solo on the Champs-Élysées.

"I hope we'll have a larger American circuit again someday. It's a big market, and almost all our equipment sponsors are based here or have offices here," Van Aert said in an interview with The Athletic, whilst spending time in America recently. "Cycling is a thing here, and it's a real shame we're not using this platform to perform at the highest level."

In this interview, the Belgian discussed many topics, one of them being his injuries. In 2024, he suffered multiple injuries at Dwars door Vlaanderen, which ended his spring ambitions; and then again at the Vuelta a España, where he had finally found good form again and had won several stages. In 2025, he returned to competitio,n but only in the monuments did he feel like he had his level back.

"It was too soon after the previous injury. I realised I'd be back to the same point. It was too much. I think every athlete is used to injuries and recovering, but having them back-to-back like that made me think about all this recovery and then crashing again next year. Would I want to do that again?" He questions. At 31 years of age and with two children at home, the Belgian is simply not taking the risks he did when he was younger on the bike.

"Then you don't even think about crashing. It's not even in the back of your mind. But after a few injuries, you understand what it's like," he admits. He carries, specially in one of his knees, the scars from the deep wound he suffered at last year's Vuelta incident. "It's normal to carry it with you. Every injury becomes increasingly complicated, and it doesn't help if you have a family with children."

The American outlet was specially interested in van Aert's Tour success, which began during his debut in 2019 where he won a stage. He's won 10 times over his career at the Tour, and has a green jersey from back in 2022. Additionally, every single year since joining Visma he has supported the likes of Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard in their GC ambitions, at times being a golden domestique. 

"A few years ago, the mindset was directly related to the results. After we won the Tour twice, I think everyone realized how special it was, because of how we pulled it off: Jonas in yellow, me in green. People talked about the victory, but also about how we rode as a team."

In 2025 this was his role again, although he also had freedom to chase stage wins. It did not come, until the final day where in the cobbled and wet streets of Paris, he found his best legs, and became the only rider to directly drop Tadej Pogacar with a one-on-one attack in the entire 2025 season. He did this on the Montmartre, and then overcame the chaos of the final kilometers to take the win.

"At certain points, on parallel sections, I passed groups, and they were shouting support on the radio. But every time the radio turned on, I thought fuck, they're behind me.' I couldn't really see behind me, with the rain and the bikes. Only on the final straight could I believe I was so far ahead."

"Dropping Tadej was exceptional. I went full throttle, just trying to get to the finish as quickly as possible," he puts simply. "It was a beautiful moment at the finish line, but it wasn't until a few days later that I realized the magnitude of the impact. Hundreds of people shared their stories about their experiences".

He had won at the Giro d'Italia too, and these wins (the only two of his 2025 season) were necessary after two major setbacks in his career the previous season. "I'd had that victory gesture in mind for a long time. After I got injured, I had a goal. I wanted to show that I'm still here, that I can still be among the best riders. I wanted to show that I'm still here."

The injuries also make a difference in the way he races currently, and the calendar he chooses as well. "After the injuries, I chose to take it a bit easier, to take fewer risks and avoid danger. But I hated the races where I wasn't at my level. I realized that I was in cycling to be the best version of myself."