Wout van Aert puts on the pressure ahead of Olympic Games: "For me, Mathieu van der Poel is the only top favorite"
Cycling
Wout van Aert was in growing form during the Tour de France but hit the Olympic Games with a stunning performance that earned him a surprising medal in the time-trial. The Belgian may have timed his training perfectly for the races in Paris and he will aim for gold, but has Mathieu van der Poel in mind as a clear rival for the Belgian team.
“It is a bit like I had imagined. A lot of people of course, but actually quite well organized. It is cool to meet a lot of other athletes," van Aert shared with Wielerflits regarding his presence in the Olympic village. "It is also surprising how many other athletes recognized Remco and me. I really hadn't thought about that. That is cool.”
The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider and his teammates Remco Evenepoel, Tiesj Benoot and Jasper Stuyven already explored the key parts of this Saturday's race and admits that the distance will make it harder than it looks like on the profile. “That was more difficult than I thought. The other climbs were a bit easier than I thought. The final loop is a bit easier than I had imagined anyway. After such a long race of more than 270 kilometers, you can make the difference on the climb of Montmartre, but also in other places.”
Montmartre, the cobbled and final ascent in the final circuit, is eyed by many as a key point of the race. But he denies that it can be compared to the ascents that are tackled in the Tour of Flanders. “That climb in Paris is not super steep, but it does continue for a long time. I understand Remco's comparison with the Oude Kwaremont, although it is very different…”
Van Aert has raced the Tour de France but he doesn't report the fatigue of other riders, and confirms that despite racing the time-trial on Saturday he has been able to continuously work towards the road race where his main ambitions lied from the start. “I recovered quickly from the time trial and have been able to train well in the past few days. Everything went according to plan. Whether I am better than last Saturday is difficult to say.”
The Belgians have a tremendously strong team and very real goal of victory for tomorrow's race, but van Aert is keen on naming his main rival as the man to beat: “For me, Mathieu van der Poel is the only top favorite. I somewhat disagree with Remco here, but that is allowed. When you look at the one-day races of the past few years, he really stands out. I expect him to do just as well here as in the other races he has won.”
However, despite expectations of a chaotic race, van Aert doesn't believe there will be an underdog victory in Trocadero. However that is because of a very specific factor: “We cannot speak of a surprise, because we will start with ninety men and fifty of them are super good riders".
Read also
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- 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
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
Loading
Remco Evenepoel et Wout Van Aert ont désigné Mathieu van der Poel comme le favori numéro 1 pour la course en ligne des JO de #Paris2024. Les Belges ont eux effectué la reco du circuit final hier avec la "très exigeante" montée pavée vers Montmartre, là où MVDP a fait l'impasse.
Write a comment