Mathieu Heijboer to work with Wout van Aert too - "There is no doubt whatsoever that things will click between the two"

Wout van Aert's long-term coach Marc Lamberts was signed by BORA - hansgrohe who looks to support Primoz Roglic as much as possible. Now, he is set to team up with Mathieu Heijboer, the man who helped Jonas Vingegaard prepare towards Tour de France success.

“There is no doubt whatsoever that things will click between the two. Wout is someone who is constantly looking for new stimuli that can make him better both physically and mentally. In that respect, he has undoubtedly come to the right place with Mathieu, a man who is open to consensus," the team's press officer Ard Bierens told Het Laatste Nieuws. "After all these years, we now know what works for Wout and what doesn't. And it has become clear that our approach appeals to him. A drastic change is therefore not necessary at all.”

Many things can change into 2024. Van Aert is having a new coach, racing a smaller cyclocross schedule which excludes the World Championships and is likely to make his Giro d'Italia debut - whilst skipping the Tour de France. It's a year of changes and to experiment with new things. The possibility of him racing the Giro in search of testing himself as a GC rider is also alive, specially now that he teams up with Heijboer, Jumbo-Visma's head of performance who works directly with Jonas Vingegaard. “Of course there will be some adjustments. And Heijboer will have a slightly different approach than Lamberts in certain areas. But their two visions are close to each other."

"It will not be spectacularly different, rather a matter of details. Every intervention or decision is one of the entire performance team, in which everyone is played on his/her specific skills and qualities. In that sense, Mathieu will become Wout's new 'point of contact' within the team, rather than his new coach or trainer.”