"This cyclocross season is a means, not an end in itself" - Heijboer shrugs off as much pressure as possible from Wout van Aert

Wout van Aert is in Essen today where he will start his cyclocross season. Jumbo-Visma have made up a small but compact calendar for the Belgian who will ultimately use off-road as preparation for 2024, and not to search results as a priority.

“People will probably think back to December and January last year, when Wout rode a very strong cross campaign. The World Championships did not give what he had hoped for, but that race was not characteristic of his winter, because otherwise Wout had an incredibly strong cyclo-cross season. Well, we're not going to see that now," Mathieu Heijboer told Het Laatste Nieuws.

Last season van Aert won several races and looked to be the strongest in the toughest races. However Hoogerheide was not one of them, but instead the fastest race of the entire season. In Benidorm the week prior van Aert had seen that Mathieu van der Poel had the speed to match him there, and in the Worlds the Belgian rode to a disapointing second place. Dedicating months of preparation towards this race is not plausible this time around, as he focuses on the cobbled classics and Giro d'Italia in his first half of the seaso.

“This cyclocross season is a means, not an end in itself. The intention is to be top in the spring. Today, Wout is not as far conditionally as he was a year ago, and so we should not expect great results." However today in Essen not only is he the overwhelming favourite for victory despite it being his first race, but it's hard to see any rider coming close as it is a very modest startlist. "I dare not deny that he can go very far with his talent and class, but what I mainly mean is that no one will be disappointed if he finishes second, fourth, sixth or eighth.”

However in the Christmas block he will have fierce competition from the seasoned pros, Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock; and even other road riders who are now starting their campaign. But the focus is ultimately elsewhere: “He has a list of competitions that he really wants to win, and there are no more crosses on it. Then we are talking about the World Championships, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix. As a result, the battle on the ground is unlikely to be as intense as in recent years. I think that's a shame, because I also liked those duels, but riders are not machines.”

The sacrifice that would take to arrive in Tabor in top form would jeopardize his form for the spring, and it is a risk too big for something that is far from certain. “You ride a World Championship to win, not to finish tenth," Heijboer argues. "But in order to win, you have to reach a very high level. This means that you have to peak and that you have to train very specifically. That is annoying, because then you have to interrupt your build-up to the spring classics, and you also have to adjust your training after such a World Championship. So: we don't do it.”