“Wout van Aert has won many races, but he still needs to win Paris-Roubaix” - Legendary Johan Museeuw 'hopes for Belgium' that Visma leader will succeed on the cobbles

For all Wout van Aert has already achieved in cycling, there is still one race that continues to shadow the conversation around him in Belgium. Not because his palmares lacks quality, but because Paris-Roubaix carries a different kind of weight. It is the race that still feels missing.

That is the lens through which Johan Museeuw, one of the great masters of the Hell of the North, views the current Visma leader. Speaking in conversation with Cyclism'Actu, the three-time Paris-Roubaix winner did not question Van Aert’s quality or body of work. Instead, he went straight to the point: “He has won many races, he has won on Mont Ventoux, but for me he still needs to win Paris-Roubaix.”

Museeuw’s argument is rooted in what this race asks of a rider. Paris-Roubaix is not simply another Monument to add to a list. In his eyes, it remains the hardest one-day race of them all, a very different beast from the Tour of Flanders despite the natural comparisons between the two.

As he put it, “When your name is Pogacar, it’s easy to win Paris-Roubaix, even for Van der Poel. It’s the one-day race the most difficult. It’s different from the Tour des Flandres. The distance is the same, but there are more pavés, 65 km de pavés. And on the Tour des Flandres, the pavés are on little climbs, it’s another thing than on Paris-Roubaix where the sectors are longer.”

That is what keeps drawing Van Aert back into this conversation. His versatility has never been in doubt. He has won across terrain and disciplines, and few riders of his generation can match the breadth of his success.

But Roubaix is the race that strips things back to durability, judgement and sheer resistance. Museeuw knows that better than most, and his old line still frames the race as well as any analysis can: “Paris-Roubaix doesn’t always smile on the strongest but on the most resistant.”

What gives Museeuw’s comments extra force is that he is not really presenting this as a personal wish. He is articulating something much broader. In modern cycling, it is easy to let the Pogacar and Van der Poel rivalry dominate every discussion around Roubaix, and Museeuw acknowledges that himself.

“When one says Pogacar or Van der Poel, it’s easy,” he said, before shifting the focus back to Van Aert and the national feeling around him: “I hope for Belgium and especially for him, that Wout van Aert will win a Classic like Paris-Roubaix, because he won only one Monument for the moment, Milan-Sanremo.”

That is the heart of the angle. Van Aert is not being framed here as a rider lacking stature. He is being framed as a rider whose talent and wider success have made Belgium crave the kind of cobbled Monument win that would feel fully in proportion with the rest of his career.

Museeuw is not romantic about the task. He knows exactly what Van Aert is up against on Sunday. Pogacar has already shown this spring that he can bend even the biggest races to his will, and Van der Poel remains the benchmark on this terrain until someone proves otherwise.

Museeuw makes that clear when discussing the Slovenian, saying: “He has won almost every race so it’s not a surprise if he wins Paris-Roubaix. On this race there, it’s going to be more complicated for him to beat Van der Poel, Pedersen, Van Aert and maybe an outsider.”

That final point matters. Roubaix, unlike many of the sport’s other biggest races, rarely stays confined to a neat hierarchy. Museeuw underlined that too, reminding everyone that “On Paris-Roubaix, there is always an outsider, because of a breakaway, of everything or nothing.” It is exactly that instability that keeps the race alive for more than just the obvious two names.

And the way the modern race is ridden only sharpens that uncertainty. Museeuw pointed to how much earlier riders now begin forcing the issue, explaining that “Now, they attack from far so Mons-en-Pévèle, Moulin de Vertain, Carrefour de l’Arbre, there are a lot of sectors where one can attack so it’s to them to decide, not to us.” That matters for Van Aert as much as anyone. In a race that can open from a long way out, the chance to shape the outcome is there if the legs are there too.

For all his emphasis on Belgium’s hopes, Museeuw is not talking about Van Aert as an outsider looking for a miracle. He still places him right in the top tier. His own podium call was telling: “For me it’s going to be Pogacar, Van der Poel and Van Aert, but it can also be Van der Poel in front of Pogacar, and it can also be, and I hope for Belgium that it will be Van Aert, Pogacar, Van der Poel, it depends a bit on the race.”

That prediction captures the tension around Van Aert perfectly. He is close enough that nobody would be shocked to see him on the podium again, and good enough that a win would never be absurd. Yet he still heads into Roubaix carrying the sense that this is the Monument that has to happen, the one result that would settle a conversation that never quite goes away.

That is why Museeuw’s words land. They are not just praise, and they are not just nostalgia from a Belgian legend. They are a reminder that Paris-Roubaix still holds a special place in the sport, and that for a rider like Van Aert, winning it would mean more than simply adding another line to an already glittering career.