Although the Tour de France and the World Championships offer riders yearly goals to work towards every summer, the Olympic Games only come around once every four years. As such, there is some extra incentive for those fighting for Olympic gold in Paris later this summer.
For Wout van Aert, the Belgian will be able to get two chances to race for an Olympic gold medal as he competes in both the men's elite road race and the individual time-trial. It's fair to say that the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider's preparation hasn't been perfect this year however, as injuries and crashes have ruined his spring. Although van Aert is expected to return to racing at the Tour de France later this month, ex-pro turned analyst Jan Bakelants isn't sure the Grand Tour will help van Aert's Olympic goals.
"It is certainly not a good preparation for the time trial, but it is for the road race," the now retired 38-year-old says in quotes collected by Wielerrevue. "I give him a one percent chance of winning a gold medal in the time trial. I think Wout will make a goal of the road race and can get a medal in the time trial, the bronze. But Olympic gold is virtually out of the question in that time trial."
Currently training hard at altitude in Tignes alongside fellow Team Visma | Lease a Bike crash victims Jonas Vingegaard and Christophe Laporte among others, van Aert recently shared a monster ride to his official Strava account, putting in over seven hours, the Belgian superstar rode for a grand total of 188.5km, taking in a massive elevation gain of 4,860 metres in the process. It was also recently revealed that van Aert won't be taking part in the time-trial at the upcoming Belgian National Championships.
🇳🇱 Mathieu Heijboer, Head of Performance @vismaleaseabike: 🗣️ “Van Aert & Vingegaard are working extremely hard to be able to participate in #TDF2024 🇫🇷. It’s 50/50. They are still a long way from the form they could have if the crashes didn’t happen.” (Nieuwsblad)
