Wout van Aert reportedly signs a lifetime contract with Team Visma | Lease a Bike
CyclingWednesday, 18 September 2024 at 11:55
It would be hard to imagine Wout van Aert riding in the colours of any team other than Team Visma | Lease a Bike. If the latest reports are to be believed, that may no never be the case as the Belgian superstar has reportedly signed a lifetime contract with the team, ending any lingering transfer rumours.
This news comes via a report from Wielerflits. According to their sources, Van Aert's contract with Team Visma | Lease a Bike, which was initially set to run through to the end of the 2026 season, has now been extended to a somewhat unique, indefinite amount of time, securing his services for a theoretical lifetime.
A star of both the road and cyclocross, Van Aert has nine Tour de France stage wins to his name along with a Green Jersey from the 2022 edition, a sole monument win from Milano-Sanremo 2020 and most recently, he was a star of the 2024 Vuelta a Espana, winning three stages and leading both the points and King of the Mountains classifications before crashing out on stage 16.
Whilst Van Aert's 2024 season was far from what he would have initially planned, with a string of crashes continually putting an end to any momentum the Belgian was building, Team Visma | Lease a Bike have repeatedly reiterated their faith in Van Aert and this new, permanent contract as sure a sign of any, that their relationship is one mutually beneficial.
It would also bring a final end to the repeatedly circled rumours of the Red Bull sponsored Van Aert becoming a star signing for the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe team. Having joined the then named Jumbo-Visma back in 2019, the 30-year-old Van Aert has become a central figure of the Dutch-based team, something that now sets to continue long into the future!
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Alpacin is pretty exceptional as far as teams go, not sure that set up or mentality can be repeated in the world of big enough money to afford a lifetime WVA.
Of course, the title hides the details and the contract no doubt includes all the disqualification criteria, bankruptcy, injury, doping, sponsor conflict, etc.
If he wants to go that way then it sounds good. Maybe they have locked him into a position with the team after he retires down the road as well.
Some have wondered or even hoped that he would go to a team that featured him the way Alpecin features MVDP or Bora used to feature Sagan, but Wout's entire road career speaks to how satisfied he has been where he is. He gets his own chances, but he clearly relishes the team-oriented culture of TVL. He has gifted big victories and served as an ultra-elite domestique who has saved entire GC titles for both Jonas and Primoz, things that could not happen if he weren't 100% committed to that role. Not sure what "lifetime" means in this context, but it certainly makes clear that he is at home at TVL and there is no need for speculation about his future.