VIDEO: Wout Van Aert takes his preparation up a notch to by taking on Stelvio... via gravel paths!
Cycling
Wout Van Aert's racing schedule is considerably empty at the moment, without the Tour de France - his usual appointment at this time of the year. The Belgian rider was withdrawn from Grande Boucle nomination by his team after he his form at preparation race Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes did not meet their high standards due to an elbow wound infection.
That is why we saw Van Aert's plans for summer adjusted notably, in particular his Grand Tour workload shifted towards the Vuelta a Espana. This should provide Van Aert with enough time to recover from his injury and be at his best level for the Spanish race.
However his summer plans may include more than just the three-week stage race. His friend and former professional Jan Bakelants recently hinted that Van Aert is quite interested in starting the Belgian gravel Championships one week ahead of Vuelta.
Partly in search of the prized national champion's jersey, partly to test his level ahead of Vuelta.
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As part of his preparation, Van Aert travelled to Italy for an altitude camp in Livigno at the start of July. And after two weeks, he's already gotten familiar enough with the area to take things up a level.
Wout van Aert 🇧🇪 (@vismaleaseabike) training in Livigno, getting ready for the Vuelta ❤️ #LaVuelta26 pic.twitter.com/UHJ5U29rY9
— categorycafe (@categorycafe) July 15, 2026
On Wednesday, Van Aert spiced up his training with a 5-hour ride on gravel (and sometimes even mountain-bike) paths on the slopes of legendary Stelvio in the company of ex-road professional turned gravel racer Aaron Van der Beken.
But don't worry, his other sessions tend to stick to road, and even though Van Aert squints at a possible gravel rainbow jersey in autumn, his priorities remain sorted.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- More to the point, it isn't his remaining goal.Renz08-11-2026
- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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