The official confirmation was missing, but that is no longer the case. Wout van Aert will not participate in the Tour de France 2024. The Team Visma - Lease a Bike rider, who had been a key part of the Dutch team in the Grande Boucle in recent years, will take a different direction next season to advance his role as leader.
The decision to skip the Tour comes on the heels of the news that van Aert will participate in the other two Grand Tours of the season: the rider will be present at both the 2024 Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. Before that, he has also set two of his sights on Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.
"The classics are my main goal," said Wout van Aert at the presentation of Visma - Lease a Bike. "Our team is stronger than last year. We lost Nathan Van Hooydonck, but we also gained a lot of strong men. My first goal is to try to win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix."
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About his Giro d'Italia debut, van Aert was confident: It's a lot of fun to explore the Giro for a change. I hope to win one or several stages. It's a tough race. For me it's a different approach than normal, but I'm looking forward to picking my stages."
The reason why Wout van Aert will not race in the Tour de France is due to the Olympic Games in Paris, where he hopes to arrive at full strength. A participation in the Grande Boucle would not have allowed him to prepare optimally for the fight for the gold medal.
Finally, the big news of the day that wasn't expected was the Vuelta a España. As with the Giro, van Aert has yet to make his debut in the final Grand Tour of each season. With Sepp Kuss intending to go and defend his title achieved in outstanding fashion this 2023, and Jonas Vingegaard intending to repeat as well, it is an unknown quantity for the cycling world to know what Visma - Lease a Bike's plan will be regarding its riders in terms of the fight for the general classification.
Article written by Jorge Borreguero.
Provisional Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Grand Tour squads: Giro d'Italia 🇧🇪 Wout van Aert 🇧🇪 Cian Uijtdebroeks 🇳🇱 Olav Kooij Tour de France 🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard 🇺🇸 Sepp Kuss 🇺🇸 Matteo Jorgenson Vuelta a España 🇺🇸 Sepp Kuss 🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard 🇧🇪 Wout van Aert 🇬🇧 Ben Tullett
