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"This has never happened before" - Belgian commentator stunned by Wout Van Aert's 'infinite' collaboration with Visma | Lease A Bike
CyclingWednesday, 18 September 2024 at 23:00
The news of today was the unexpected video post from Visma | Lease a Bike where the Dutch team announced 'infinite' collaboration with their multi-discipline star Wout Van Aert. The cut with both wholesome moments as well as lows that shaped the Belgian's career to this day. This should be enough to silence the transfer rumours.
"Wout van Aert feels at home with the team he rides for and Visma | Lease a Bike has a lot to offer Van Aert," begins Sporza's commentator Carl Berteele. "This goes beyond the employer-employee relationship. I also think that Van Aert does not feel like he 'has to go to work'. It is more than that."
"The team has already helped Van Aert a lot and he has of course also given his team a lot. That has led to a kind of symbiosis. And Wout van Aert turned 30 on Sunday. That also makes you start thinking. And they have found each other."
"When Van Aert looks back, there are already more years in which he has been a rider than there are years ahead of him. Perhaps he didn't want to end up in that rat race of negotiations, conversations with managers and other teams when he was 30. He has long since transcended that aspect of racing."
But a contract until the end of his career, nobody had expected that. "As far as I know, this has never happened before," says Berteele. "There are a number of riders in the peloton with long-term contracts, of 3 to 5 years. Now there is no end date on the contract. That is, so to speak, forever."
Does this contract mean that there may have been discussions about a role for Van Aert after his active career? "That could well be. Van Aert is also working on that. He has been looking beyond his cycling career for a long time. You can feel that in his interviews."
"Wout van Aert is someone who will still be someone after his career. It could well be that this is with a function within that team. Van Aert is someone we will talk about for years to come. And then we will say: 'The ex-rider who is now doing X or Y'. He will be someone in society that we will still hear about," Berteele is convinced.
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