"Moments he’ll still be asked about in thirty years’ time" – Wout van Aert’s 2025 season far better than given credit for, says Jan Bakelants

In a season where Belgian cycling was dominated by the usual debates around who shone brightest, former pro turned analyst Jan Bakelants has urged fans not to underestimate Wout van Aert’s 2025 campaign — describing it as “one he’ll still be remembered for in thirty years’ time.”

While many have pointed to Van Aert’s limited victory count as a sign of decline, Bakelants believes the numbers tell only part of the story. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider took just two wins this year, but both, he argues, were moments of genuine sporting significance.

“He ‘only’ won twice, yes, but both came at decisive moments,” Bakelants explained in his annual analysis for HLN. “There are wins, and then there are wins. From a marketing point of view, a Sunday victory in a Grand Tour is worth far more than one on a Tuesday or Thursday.”

Van Aert’s Strade Bianche-style stage win to Siena in the Giro d’Italia and his Tour de France finale on La Butte Montmartre in Paris are, for Bakelants, proof of enduring class rather than fading form. “Those are triumphs for the collective memory — moments people will still talk about decades from now,” he said. “That final stage in Paris, in particular, was spectacular. Wout was the author of one of the cycling moments of the year.”

After a difficult start to the Tour de France, where little seemed to go right, Van Aert’s victory on the streets of Paris was, Bakelants believes, the ultimate demonstration of resilience. “It showed his extraordinary mental strength. Many riders would have given up after that kind of Tour, but he kept fighting and ended it with something truly special.”

Bakelants concedes that Van Aert is unlikely to win the 2025 Kristallen Fiets, Belgium’s annual cycling award, noting that the public still expects “a major Classic” before he can reclaim such accolades. Yet he insists that, judged on context and prestige, few riders produced victories of comparable emotional and sporting weight.

Bakelants also reserved strong praise for Remco Evenepoel, who remains his pick to win this year’s Kristallen Fiets, potentially equalling Johan Museeuw’s record of five.

The Soudal - Quick-Step leader, despite starting his season late after a serious training crash in December 2024, still produced another world-class campaign — crowned by World and European time trial titles and a series of consistent top finishes. “Among the Belgians performing at the highest level, there were no surprises — and Remco tops the list, naturally,” Bakelants said. “Without that accident and the rehabilitation that followed, he’d definitely have achieved even more this year.”

The former Tour de France stage winner highlighted Evenepoel’s early-season rhythm and what might have been had he been fit to race Pogacar in stage races such as Paris–Nice, Tirreno–Adriatico, or the Volta a Catalunya. “If Pogacar wasn’t there, Remco would likely have added more wins to his total,” he added. “Considering he only had half a season, what he managed to do was exceptional. You can’t separate his world and European titles from his other results — they’re of the same calibre.”

Evenepoel’s relentless consistency, Bakelants concluded, ensures he remains Belgium’s standard-bearer on the global stage. “He’s in pole position for a fifth Kristallen Fiets. No one else has reached that level of dominance this year.”