"In the Vuelta I had finally felt like a winner again" - Wout van Aert on 2024 heartbreaks, difficulties winning monuments and beating Tadej Pogacar
Cycling
Wout van Aert has started his season in Spain, the country where in 2024 he has his year ended with a nasty fall at the Vuelta a España. Speaking to Relevo, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider recalled the injury that ended his 2024 season and talked about the classics and Tadej Pogacar.
"I think everyone is constantly trying to improve, so if you keep doing the same thing, your level is going to stagnate and that is a problem. In today's cycling, the level is constantly increasing," van Aert explained. For a rider who has had two major crashes in 2024, it certainly is no easy task neither physically or mentally - specially when Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar enjoy a long run without injuries where they can constantly improve.
After winning three stages, wearing the points and KOM jersey... The withdrawal and season ending from La Vuelta's crash was specially difficult. "In the Vuelta I had finally felt like a winner again. I was at my best again, so it was very difficult to assimilate [...] Especially starting from scratch. The truth is that I didn't want to start another rehab. All my goals were so far away and it was hard. I had been through something like that before and I felt like I didn't want to start from scratch again".
It was a heartbreaking situation for the Belgian who already had to let go of the cobbled monuments, Giro d'Italia, and now would also miss the World Championships. But in true van Aert fashion, he has recovered and trained through the winter; and in the cyclocross schedule he built he took some wins and went on to finish second to Mathieu van der Poel at the World Championships. His rivalry with the Dutchman marked his career, not only coming second multiple times at the CX worlds, but also having the same on the road, specially in monuments.
In 2023 he was fit to win Roubaix, but punctured close to the finale whilst attacking his rival. In 2022 he was second and in 2024 he was injured and couldn't race. He has only one monument (2020 Milano-Sanremo) to his name. "My second place in the Tour of Flanders [in 2020] was a very tight finish. That day I could have won, because I arrived very close with Mathieu, but in the end it came up tails (he refers to heads or tails, ed.). It couldn't be. Even so, I have no regrets about it. It happened and that's it".
A rider who faces a lot of bad luck, and when he is at his best he faces a rival of historical proportions. At 30 years of age, he is perhaps in the final years where he can contest for a big career-changing victory. "Mathieu is a tremendous athlete. It's normal that I lose a lot against him. What I'm trying to do is appreciate more and more that I'm the one who comes closest to him and the one who offers him the most competition, so I think it's a very nice rivalry".
In 2023 on the run-up to Flanders, he beat van der Poel and Pogacar directly at the E3 Saxo Classic, but was then defeated in Flanders. This year the three meet once again in the famous 'bergs'. But actually, this is something van Aert wanted: "For me, I think it's easier when Tadej [Pogacar] is racing, because it's highly likely that he'll propose a long and very hard finish. If you have the legs to be able to follow him, I think you can find yourself in a new race from then on". He believes races become less tactical when the World Champion takes part.
And for the Tour de France, he wants to help Visma defeat the Slovenian after a tremendous 2024 performance. "Luck was not on our side at all, we had a lot of crashes, and especially our leader Jonas [Vingegaard] couldn't come to the Tour de France with the ideal preparation. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything will go when he can get back to full preparation and have a real battle with Tadej. I think that's the biggest dream of any fan right now. And that's what we're working towards as a team," he concluded.
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Things you love to see 😍
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) February 17, 2025
Egan Bernal is debuting his Colombian national champ jersey and Wout van Aert has kicked off his road season at Clásica Jaén 🔥
📷 Sprint Cycling pic.twitter.com/ovthiLCfjz
While Wout had not been so lucky and had lost against MvDP in the classics and XC, he is an all terrain guy who can perform consistently on Grand Tours. He's probably lacking in explosiveness compared to MvDP, but is able to churn out consistent long powerful rides.
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- if there is an actual weakness in wout even when completely healthy, it’s that he’s in his head too often. this has been pointed out many times by much more acute observers of cycling than ME, certainly. it may be that he’s been like this since he was a little kid. we are who we are. or that he was shaped by having faced van der poel SOOO many times. mvdp has zero second thoughts. he wastes no time at all on doubt. that has, in the past, led him to do some pretty insane things and make mistakes that wout would never have committed. but it also makes him a killer. you can see wout’s split seconds of doubt and hesitation everywhere in their head to head battles. those hesitations spill over into other races at times like dwars, when doubt creeps in. i believe that currently he is still coming back from physical problems due to injuries, but even when he’s full strength the mental game is an area of potential concern, AND potential improvement.OCexile03-04-2025
- Not only the public, just about every analyst and commentator had been piling it on. Under the circumstances I’d even say he’s showing real character. Not sure likeable Tadej would manage as well during a longer rough patch.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Took a while but we finally have a more nuanced analysis.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- If I remember right, it was those same hungry journalists selling us a different story less than a year ago about the bleak future of Dutch (men’s) cycling with no possible successor for MVDP ;-)Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Good, hopefully Jonas goes also so we get a nice duelvappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- right? i think it’s hungry journalists that fuel this, and i understand the jam they can be in trying to create stories, but you’d hate to think ANYONE is failing to appreciate how RARE someone like van der poel is (or how LUCKY we are to have both mvdp and pog racing at the same time). a little perspective is a good thing…OCexile03-04-2025
- Anyone know how long that 213km ride took? Coz without that the segment speeds don’t reveal anything surprising. If it took him Less than 5h ok but otherwise it was just some interval training for him.Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- Hinault was even lighter than Pog at 62 kg when he won PR in 1981, beating Roger van Vlaeminck no less (albeit at the fag end of the latter's career), so it can be done.Cooldude03-04-2025
- Having to shoulder too much pressure from the Belgain public too much that he made a tactical mistake. That's what public pressure does to you. Poor Wout! Hopefully, lady luck befalls him soon.
KerisVroom03-04-2025 - If he's very lucky maybe he can podium a Tour one season, I certainly don't believe he can win it, evervappaxbipmv03-04-2025