We all know that Wout van Aert is an athlete who loves new challenges, who finds in them a way to motivate himself and grow more as a man and an athlete.
His team, Jumbo Visma, will defend the trident of Grand Tours won this year in 2024, the most important of which is the Tour de France, not only because of the media coverage, but also because of the pressure from sponsors and the team's management, which has Jonas Vingegaard as the rider to take to the final victory in Nice.
In a year that will be marked by the Olympic Games and where van Aert says he wants to be present, the Tour de France isn't very appealing. Firstly, because now the stages are known and there's a very tough last week, which will leave its mark on the athletes, and secondly because of the short time to recover between races. Let's remember that the Tour de France finishes on July 21, the Olympic Games start on July 26 and the time trials take place the very next day, July 27.
For van Aert, who finished second in the road race in Tokyo, only gold matters and Paris is the goal. If he wants to be on an equal footing with Filippo Ganna, Joshua Tarling or even Remco Evenepoel in the individual time trial, he has to get there physically and mentally fresh. Ganna has already said that he won't take part in the Tour because of the Games, with the observation that Ganna will be doing specific preparation. This is where the Tour of Italy comes into play.
Wout van Aert would like to race the Giro d'Italia. He said so himself earlier this month, during an interview on the eve of the Gravel World Championship. When asked by a Gazzetta dello Sport journalist if he would race the Giro for the first time next year, Van Aert made no secret of his desire: "I hope so," he said. "I'd love to, but it's not just my decision. I also want to race the Vuelta in the future, but if I don't race the Tour, then the Giro is the first race I want to take part in."
It remains to be seen whether Jumbo-Visma will want to give up one of its riders, considered by many to be the most complete cyclist in the World Tour peloton, the most consistent in the Tour, after Roglic's departure and Nathan van Hooydonck's premature abandonment. Matteo Jorgensen, among others, has come in, but the team will need solidity to carry its leader, Jonas Vingegaard, through to the final stage in Nice. The team can also play a psychological game with Wout, as he has a personal "reckoning" with the 2023 Tour, which didn't go the way he planned and wanted. For the first time in five editions, the "Kempenaar" had to return home without a stage win, abandoning the Tour prematurely so as not to miss the birth of his son Jeronimo.
Let's remember the series of narrow defeats he had - the flying bidon episode in San Sebastian - were indications that there were frustrations and there's no better way to end a hangover than with a stage win. For a rider with Van Aert's qualities, there are possibilities and we're thinking, for example, of the first stage - ironically on Italian soil - which is too difficult for true sprinters, but where Van Aert can certainly survive. Wout van Aert can't just say no to the possibility of wearing the yellow jersey again.
Wout van Aert has a philosophy: "I simply don't have to do anything". It remains to be seen whether the status he has earned through his work will be enough to convince Jumbo-Visma to let him fulfill his wish for 2024: the Giro d'Italia.
*Article written by Carlos Silva
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