“I’ve worked really hard to win the Flanders and Roubaix" - Wout van Aert eagerly anticipating upcoming battles

The upcoming weeks could go down as a defining period in the career of Team Visma | Lease a Bike superstar, Wout van Aert. Firstly, Dwars Door Vlaanderen this Wednesday before a pair of monuments at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

“The pressure is always there and it’s a challenge to deal with it,” van Aert said recently in a media call, with quotes collected by Velo, thriving on the pressure many would struggle with. “I’ve worked really hard to win the Flanders and Roubaix. It gives me energy to go for it.”

Although van Aert's start to 2024 has been pretty solid so far, winning a stage of the Volta ao Algarve and securing a 7th-placed overall finish before podium finishes at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the E3 Saxo Classic whilst winning Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne. The coming weeks however, bring the big goals largely into focus for the 29-year-old Belgian.

“I think I can win them, so adding them to my palmares is a super big goal,” van Aert says of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. “But in recent years I have often missed it. Apart from some criticism, this does not change much. I have to do it for myself. I have nothing to prove.”