"I’ve preferred to enjoy the end with my friends" - Wout van Aert finishes wildly successful Tour de France in green
Cycling
A rider as versatile and talented as Wout van Aert can at times be complicated to manage when the team carries other ambitions. However Jumbo-Visma have used and supported the Belgian rider to the very best of it's abilities and he was a major card of the team's success.
“The green jersey means a lot to me. It means that I’ve been up there for the whole race. I’ve scored points almost every day," he said, having reached his goal. "Let’s not forget that we announced that goal last winter and we have reached it by winning both yellow and green jerseys. It’s a huge achievement and we can be proud of it".
Van Aert dedicated himself to that jersey this year, and has taken a dominant win in the classification, confirming it with several days left to race and having an advantage of almost 200 points over Jasper Philipsen who went on to finish second. He won the stages into Calais, Lausanne and the time-trial into Rocamadour, alongside four more second places and a third in Hautacam where he put on his best climbing performance of the year whilst helping Jonas Vingegaard to a GC-burying stage win.
"At the end of the day, we’ve won three jerseys and six stages. That makes us the team of this Tour. After I secured the green jersey, I also managed to focus on the work I could do for my team-mates. That also worked well," he said. He proved to be crucial support, many times being in breakaways to later serve as support, but also being crucial in the fifth stage when the Dane suffered a mechanical and had van Aert to bring him back into the peloton.
After the time-trial in which he and Vingegaard finished first and second, the Belgian explains that he felt the race was completed to perfection. "Today I didn’t go for the stage win because it wasn’t necessary," he said. "After that [stage 20], I was so emotional that in my legs and my head, I wasn’t able to try and win today. I’ve preferred to enjoy the end with my friends. It sums up what we’ve experienced on this Tour.”
Sure enough, although the injuries of Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk cast a dark shadow, it could've hardly gone any better for Jumbo-Visma who led a lot of the race, won the three main classifications, six stage wins and was in the spotlight from start to finish.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- A great champion but a better human. jus' sayin'
Davide15-11-2026 - Congrats! It is done so now is time for CX.averagecyclist15-11-2026
- It's going to happen at some point. It will happen to Tadej as well, we all get older. Jonas was in pretty great form at the tour. I still consider him a top two or three cyclist in the world, until he's not.awp15-11-2026
- mij, I am not so sure of that. I have been on a spine ward at a Denver hospital that had quite a few spinal injuries from mountain biking.BDBigGuy15-11-2026
- Pogi takes care of his teammates in races and training. Tadej Pogačar is widely praised within the cycling peloton for his fair and egalitarian leadership, actively supporting his UAE teammates both on the road during races and behind the scenes at training camps. Rather than acting like an untouchable superstar, he has intense team loyalty by sharing daily chores, giving up personal glory to help domestiques, and publicly praising their sacrifices. Unlike some Grand Tour contenders, like Vingegaard, who occasionally train away from their squads, Pogi consistently attends team training camps alongside his domestiques, making the exact same sacrifices to build friendship. I love how Pogačar shares his teammates-domestiques, either when they succeed or win in races or when they simply just do a good job for him. It has to be a great moral boost for them. And then they work even harder and go even deeper for Pogi. This is teamwork.PogiSloFans15-11-2026
- Yeah, what he said!Lozza15-11-2026
- I’m sure Jasper Philipsen would disagree with you.Lozza15-11-2026
- Article says he was “out for a spin around the town”, implying not off-road.Lozza15-11-2026
- let’s be honest, Alpecin is all about one rider - MVDP. I’m sure he gets whatever he needs, the rest get the scraps.mij15-11-2026
- there are more vicious injuries on a road bike than a mountain bike far and away.mij15-11-2026
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