Wout van Aert goes through travel issues ahead of Canadian classics

Wout van Aert is scheduled to participate in GP Quebec this Friday along with his Jumbo Visma teammates. He and Jasper Stuyven decided to fly separately in an attempt to reach the destination earlier than via the team’s chartered flight.

But the Belgians were in for a long ride. They chose a direct flight from Paris to Quebec from Charles de Gaulle Airport. However, the plan failed miserably when the flight departed with an hour delay.

The Air France flight AF352 circled over the Atlantic Ocean for over two hours, waiting for permission. Then the captain informed them that they had to return to Brest to refuel. In Brest, the Airbus 330 was on the ground for almost an hour and a half to refuel. Wout Van Aert was reasonably upset with the delay “I’ve never experienced anything like this,” said Van Aert.

Later one of the Air France crew told WielerFlits, “The flight plan was in order, but the permission this time took an extremely long time.” But not all was in vain since Jasper Stuyven was able to watch his teammate Mads Pedersen take the win in the sixteenth stage of Vuelta a Espana. “Without this stopover, we would have missed this final”, said Van Aert. The flight reached Quebec at 6:45 PM local time, with delay of more than four hours in total.