Ahead of Opening Weekend, with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne taking place this weekend, Wout van Aert has been looking ahead to the start of the Spring Classics and how his Visma | Lease a Bike team will fair in the first two races.
In an interview with WielerFlits ahead of the weekend, Van Aert stated that he will be “satisfied if we win one of the two”. Having won both races with Dylan van Baarle and Tiesj Benoot last year, the Dutch team will once again go into this year’s Classics season as the favourites for most races.
Van Aert will undoubtedly be the team’s leader for the Classics season, but with so many other talented riders on the team, it could be difficult to balance other leadership opportunities throughout the Spring.
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With so many potential leaders, the team could also lack domestiques in the key races, with Nathan Van Hooydonck being a miss for Team Visma | Lease a Bike, following his premature retirement at the end of last season.
Van Aert noted the key absence of Van Hooydonck in his interview, as he said that “in addition to Edoardo Affini, Nathan was the one in the selections who always started without a profit goal and sacrificed himself for us very unconditionally. That is something different now”.
Following Opening Weekend, Van Aert’s current Classics schedule includes the E3 Saxo Classic, Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen, ahead of the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix.
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- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
- Thibau Nys does exactly what Iserbyt is calling for
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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🇧🇪 #OHN24 The long wait is finally over. 😍
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