"If you look at how much bad luck Wout had..." - Visma retain faith in Van Aert and insist on 'sticking to the plan'

Wout van Aert is yet to spark into life in 2025. After a shortened cyclocross winter, the Belgian has struggled to make much of an impact on the road so far this year, but regardless, Team Visma | Lease a Bike insist they retain their full faith in their superstar leader and will stick to the plan for the rest of the upcoming spring.

Van Aert was criticised by some, including Olympic gold medallist Greg van Avermaet because of his absence from Gent Wevelgem this week. In the opinion of the Belgian, his compatriot needs racing in his legs in order to get back to his best rather than trips to altitude and training camps. As mentioned though, Team Visma | Lease a Bike themselves are confident that if they stick to the current plan, all will be well for Van Aert in the coming months.

"With Wout, it’s different; he’s just begun his block. So it wasn’t a tough decision. We stick to the plan we have with Wout," the team's sports director Arthur van Dongen explains to In de Leiderstrui about Van Aert's Gent Wevelgem absence.

As for the recent disappointment at the E3 Saxo Classic, Van Aert and Visma have analysed the race thoroughly in the days since. "A few things came up, but nothing alarming," explains Van Dongen. "As for Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders: of course, we would have liked to have Olav Kooij (fractured his collarbone in a crash at Gent Wevelgem ed.) there on Wednesday, but Wout and Matteo Jorgenson will be the leaders."

"If you look at how much bad luck Wout had last year and how he had to come back from a tough season…" adds Van Dongen, insistent that given time, the Belgian can certainly get back to competing for the win in the biggest races.

Speaking of competing for wins, despite some blows with disappointments and crashes for leaders Van Aert, Kooij and Jonas Vingegaard this year already, Van Dongen is relatively happy with Visma's overall performance in 2025 to date. "We mustn’t forget that we already have twelve victories, with young riders like Matthew Brennan and Ben Tulett. And we’ve won races like the Algarve and Paris-Nice, so we can hold on to that," concludes the DS.