“I tried to tell Remco to still go for it” - Wout van Aert pays for early attack as Belgium's star duo disappoint in World Championship road race
Cycling
Wout van Aert spent the closing laps of the World Championship road race crawling towards the finish, a long way from the front of a race he had helped tear open earlier in the day.
Belgium had come to Montreal hoping that he or Remco Evenepoel could take the rainbow jersey; by the time the decisive moves went, Van Aert was trying to give his teammate one last chance.
He had joined the first major selection alongside Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic and Oscar Onley. With Van Aert ahead, Evenepoel could stay in the wheels behind as the pace rose. The position suited Belgium, but Van Aert was already struggling with his legs.
“Well, yeah, kind of disappointed. We came here for more as a team, and personally as well,” Van Aert told Cycling Pro Net after the finish. “But on the other hand, there are not many regrets I can have. The legs hurt really badly early on, but I still tried to make some early moves so I could get ahead of the race, which was good. Especially Mathieu was already super strong at that time.”
Belgium's early advantage slips away
Evenepoel had been able to wait while Van Aert was ahead, but his own race became harder when Isaac del Toro raised the pace behind the leaders. Van Aert, meanwhile, could no longer hold the front group. He was still close enough to keep riding for a result until the gap and the effort caught up with him.
“Once I was dropped there, we still kind of stayed close to the front, so I still believed there was something possible,” he said. “But at some point there was not much more for me to do than help Remco a bit, and in the last laps I was just crawling to the finish.”
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"I tried to tell Remco to still go for it"
The two leaders had started the decisive phase in different parts of the race, an arrangement that had briefly worked for Belgium. When they came together again, Van Aert was spent and Evenepoel was trying to recover ground. The few minutes they shared on the road gave Van Aert a chance to help, though he could offer little more than one effort to reduce the gap.
“For me it was clear that my race, in terms of riding the deep final, was over,” Van Aert said. “Eventually, when Remco came to me, I think he was one of the last favourites joining the group. I asked him how he was doing. He said he was not feeling really well, but I tried to tell him to still go for it. I still tried to close the gap a little bit to the front group at that time, and then my race was over.”
Evenepoel kept fighting his way back towards the chase but finished 12th as Brandon McNulty won the rainbow jersey. Van Aert crossed the line 28th, more than five minutes down, having spent the final laps simply getting himself to the finish.
Montreal was also his last race of the season. “No, it's my last race. It's holiday from now on,” Van Aert said when asked about his plans, closing a day that had begun with Belgium holding a rider in the front selection and ended with both of its leaders outside the top ten.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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