"They would mean everything to me" - Wout van Aert on winning Roubaix and Flanders; Beating Pogacar at Tour de France
Cycling
Wout van Aert is a tremendously talented rider and one with a lot of history in cycling. This year he only won twice, but both were perhaps the most spectacular stages of both Giro d'Italia and Tour de France - in Siena and Paris. He recalls these, as well as his everlasting motivation to win a cobbled monument, and more.
"I feel like I've been chasing those races my whole career. They would really be the icing on the cake. They would mean everything to me," van Aert said regarding the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, in words to the New York Times.
He has been close on several occasions, but having rivals such as Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar at their absolute prime has not allowed him to be victorious in them - whilst bad luck was often in the mix too in recent years. He did win the 2020 Milano-Sanremo and also Strade Bianche in the past, but it's the two cobbled classics that attract him the most.
"In my youth, I watched those races and thought: I want to do that too. Now I'm closer than ever, but the pressure remains. The past two years, I started as the top favorite, and that's sometimes difficult," he admits. But on the cobbles the Belgian continues to thrive, and whilst he wasn't able to take a big win in the spring, during the Tour he took the win on the final stage after dropping none other than Tadej Pogacar on the cobbled climb to Montmartre.
That was perhaps the highlight of the Belgian's season, and he recalls the ascent in which he dropped the sport's top figure: "At that moment, I could barely hear anything on the radio, just the adrenaline and the battle with myself".
Injuries and team success
Van Aert is a rider that has crashed and got injured often recently however, 2024 being the prime example with a major crash in the spring and then another at La Vuelta. "Every injury gets worse as you get older, and with a family, your motivation changes too". These month-long breaks also affect his evolution as a rider, whereas both van der Poel and Pogacar have avoided major injuries for years now.
In the USA, van Aert had the opportunity to meet several celebrities and also watch live Basketball. He was asked about the sport and compared the financial system of both: "The NBA has a completely different financial system than we do. We can learn a lot from that". Currently, cycling teams do not benefit from TV rights, and whilst the sport is bringing in more money than ever, it's also bringing bigger differences which become a big problem for smaller teams.
Lastly he was also asked about the balance between being a leader and a domestique within Team Visma | Lease a Bike, to which he answered: "Winning as a team is a special feeling, but nothing beats a personal victory. I also need to go for my own chances every now and then."
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- JV is really slighting himself with not doing the 1 dayers.. 🤷
leedorney02-11-2026 - Watch the interview on youtube. I don't speak French. I do speak English and Spanish and you can hear it in his voice. Years ago LeMond had real personal problems I imagine in no small part because of Armstrong. then Armstrong goes round "full blast" re: LeMond having drinking and drug problems. The same way Andreu was expelled from mainstream cycling so was LeMond. On the positive side the clips of the ride and chatting with old teammates and was good. To seemed like a fun day and experience and good reason brush up his French.atom02-11-2026
- and another no-news article around the ‚2 tokyo jogging rounds‘ headline, this time spiced with some days old ‚news‘ that the LA and japan vacation trips come during or after the tdf route release. i am getting more and more annoyed by this time-stealing no-news crap. but who am i to complain? nobody forces me to come back for more ‚news‘ day after day …Ketterechts02-11-2026
- It would likely be a very steep section of 4.1 km, not changing the average gradient considerably, with the climb remaining 10.1 km at 11.8%. It would reach 20% on the gravel. It would start 1.6 km in, and finish with 4.2 km left to climb (before the short final descent)
Rafionain-Glas02-11-2026 - Welcome to the off-season.
santiagobenites02-11-2026 - guillaume martin in this list is quite a surprise as a gc rider.Ketterechts02-11-2026
- Who cares what Bruyneel thinks. He and his best mate Lance, the biggest fraud in the history of sport, have no place commenting on anything but how to lie and cheat!whit2pet02-11-2026
- Eeesh!Lozza02-11-2026
- bravo! a rider likes jonas needs motivation and he needs to believe in being able to reach goals. he - like anybody else in the world - doesn't believe that he can win the tdf with pogi present. and what's it worth for when pogi is not there? second class victory only. he has checked all three grand tours, so what is left if not retire? the classics! go for it, jonas!Ketterechts02-11-2026
- i am sure that under the pretext of medical examination a lot worse has happened when they were under.abstractengineer02-11-2026
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