Wout van Aert dropped Pogacar on Montmarte; can he keep up in Flanders? "It's a logical goal in my career"

Wout van Aert is a rider who has high ambitions. Despite the evolution of Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel in the past few years into an almost unreachable level, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider has not reduced his goals and continues to dream of victory at Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders which he's been chasing for years.

"If I no longer believe in winning the Tour of Flanders, then maybe three more riders can think about it. It will be very difficult, but it's a logical goal in my career. A goal I want to keep pursuing," van Aert said in an interview with Café Koers. Van Aert has won in all Grand Tours, has been part of many Grand Tour wins with direct support and has won several high-level classics as well as cyclocross world titles. He aims for big wins that aren't yet in his palmarès.

And he believes that at 31 he can definitely continue to evolve further. "I have to believe that I can definitely start at a better level than last year. All the circumstances are right for me to be a little bit better." In 2025 this wasn't the case as he was returning from a large injury suffered at the 2024 Vuelta a España - which was his second major injury of the year, after he also crashed at high-speed at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

Later in the year then van Aert would go on to win the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris, dropping Pogacar on the cobbled ascent to Montmartre and riding to a solo win. It can't be ignored that the circumstances were different, with the climb being much less difficult than those of Flanders and off the back of a three-week race, however the Belgian did what no other rider managed to in 2025.

He looks back at the 2025 edition of Flanders, where he reached his best form, but had two of he world's very best ahead of him - besides Mads Pedersen and his teammate Jasper Stuyven. "If you look at last year's race conditions, I think it was against us that day that Mathieu had been ill and was just a little bit weaker than Tadej. If Mathieu had been closer to Tadej, they would have neutralized each other for even longer," he argues. "They often work very well together, but in those last ten kilometers, it's a different story."

"The worst-case scenario was that someone was out front alone after the Paterberg with a big gap. That's what happened. Maybe there will be an edition where we can follow, or where they'll look at each other. Then we'll be there first with the team." With Matteo Jorgenson, Christophe Laporte and other high-level figures in the team, Visma can definitely still make an impact.

"The races I'm closest to are the cobbled races. Tadej is a phenomenon, and it's amazing how good he is on all terrains, but I'll keep trying. Remco Evenepoel's chances? Tadej makes it look easy, but Remco sometimes makes it look easy too," the Olmypic Champion's compatriot shared. And this spring, it is quite possible that we will see Evenepoel be a factor in Flanders too. "I wouldn't dare say he won't be competing right away".