“Even with Pogacar and Van der Poel at the start, why not?” – Patrick Lefevere backs Wout van Aert for Monument glory

Patrick Lefevere may no longer be running a WorldTour team, but he is still watching the peloton with the eye of someone who has spent decades studying what wins the biggest races.

And when the subject turned to Wout van Aert in a recent appearance on a La Derniere Heure podcast, the former Soudal - Quick-Step boss did not hesitate. “I still think he can win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix. Even with Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel at the start. Why not?”

It is a striking vote of confidence at a moment when much of the conversation around Van Aert has centred on what he has lost this winter rather than what he still possesses.

The Belgian is working his way back from the ankle fracture he sustained in the Zilvermeercross in Mol, an injury that forced him to cut short his cyclocross campaign and briefly raised questions over how smoothly his road preparation would unfold.

But Lefevere is not interested in that line of thinking.

For Lefevere, the evidence is already there in what Van Aert has produced against the very riders he will have to beat this spring.

“He has had a lot of bad luck. But he has so much talent, and he is very strong,” Lefevere said. “What he did in the Tour, on Montmartre. And when he beat Pogacar in the mountains. He is physically and mentally very strong. Everything he has been through. Chapeau.”

That is the part of Van Aert’s profile that Lefevere believes people overlook too quickly. Not the crashes. Not the disrupted winters. Not the list of what might have been.

But the repeated proof, on the biggest stages in the sport, is that he can go head-to-head with Pogacar and Van der Poel and come out on top.

Van Aert has already shown he can distance Pogacar on steep terrain and match Van der Poel in the sort of brutal, attritional racing that defines the Monuments. In Lefevere’s eyes, those qualities do not disappear because of one winter setback.

For Lefevere, this is not just a question of legs or form. It is about perspective.

Van Aert’s recent seasons have been defined as much by setbacks as by results. Crashes at key moments. Interrupted preparations. Constant comparisons to Van der Poel and Pogacar. The weight of expectation that follows him into every major race.

Yet, through all of that, he has continued to perform at the highest level on the biggest stages in the sport.

That, in Lefevere’s view, is why the conversation should not start from what Van Aert has missed this winter, but from what he has repeatedly shown over the years. In races that come down to strength, resilience and racing instinct, he still has every attribute required to win.

And when the Monuments reach the point where only the very strongest are left in contention, Van Aert remains exactly where he has so often been before – in the fight.