No cyclocross until at least late December for Wout van Aert according to Visma

Although the 2024/25 cyclocross season is already in full swing this winter with the European Championships taking place this weekend in Spain, the presence of the sport's so-called 'Big 3', Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock and Wout van Aert is still lacking. In reference to the latter however, we may now have a time frame for his cyclocross campaign.

Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad from the 2024 European Championships in Pontevedra, Team Visma | Lease a Bike manager Jan Boven gave some insight into Van Aert's plans for this winter, hinting that a cyclocross return won't be possible until at least late December. “Wout is now leaving for Spain for two and a half weeks to train. After that we will sit down together, but he will only start again after the first team training camp that ends on December 19," he explains.

This means that Van Aert is set to start his campaign even later than last season, where the Belgian kicked off his winter on December 9th with a victory at Exact Cross Essen, before eventually going on to race a total of nine races, adding one further victory to his palmares at the UCI World Cup in Benidorm on the 21st of January. “That period was also an option now," Boven says of a possible early December start this year. "But then you only have the races in Dublin and Sardinia. Those are long journeys for one race.”

As mentioned, it's also unknown as of yet when or where both Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock will enter the field this winter. It is expected that all of the Big 3 will be present at at least some cyclocross battles over the coming months although a notable lesser calendar from all three superstars seems more and more likely the longer the silence continues from each party.