Wout van Aert eyes home cyclocross Worlds - his coach says he’ll need at least four races just to earn a good grid spot
Cyclocross
Wout van Aert won a World Cup round and finished second and fourth in two others before the 2025 Cyclocross World Championships. He still started on the fourth row in Lievin. With Van Aert eyeing a home Worlds in Ostend, Belgian national coach Angelo De Clercq told Het Laatste Nieuws he expects the three-time champion to need at least four World Cup races this winter to earn a place on one of the first two rows.
Van Aert finished 17th in the 2024/25 World Cup standings on 92 points, three behind Cameron Mason in 16th. The official start order and lap times from Lievin show how much ground he had to make up.
Van Aert clipped a fence in the opening corner and ended the first lap in 16th, 46 seconds behind Mathieu van der Poel. He was up to second two laps later and took silver, 45 seconds behind the Dutchman.
Van Aert sits 62nd in the UCI cyclocross rankings after an ankle fracture in Mol ended his previous campaign in January. “The wildcard he needs to be selected is no problem in itself,” De Clercq said.
Under the UCI’s start-order rule, the World Cup top 16 are called up ahead of riders seeded by their UCI cyclocross ranking.
Wout van Aert leads Mathieu van der Poel in the snow at the 2026 Exact Cross Mol
Four cyclocross World Cup rounds in nine days
Van Aert’s opening race is still undecided, with Ruddervoorde on 6 December a possibility before Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s training camp in Spain. The World Cup calendar gives him the option of four rounds in nine days. If he starts at Antwerp and Koksijde on 19 and 20 December, he could race again at Gavere and Namur the following weekend. Besancon on 29 December and Zonhoven on 3 January give him two more options over the festive period.
“Wout absolutely wants to be there in front of his home crowd,” De Clercq said. “But he’ll wait to see how his form comes along over the busy festive period and whether he can go to Ostend with a realistic chance of winning the world title.”
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De Clercq pointed to Thibau Nys and Tibor Del Grosso, both medallists at the 2026 Worlds in Hulst, as riders Van Aert would need to match even before factoring in Van der Poel. When Ostend last hosted the Worlds in 2021, Van Aert took silver behind Van der Poel with the course closed to spectators. He said in October that he would love to race there with a crowd.
If Van Aert still needs points after Zonhoven, Benidorm and Hamme offer two more chances before the World Cup finale at Hoogerheide on 24 January. The elite men race for the rainbow jersey in Ostend seven days later.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- fingers crossed. my son has a poster of wout and mathieu battling each other at the beach at ostend up in his room. would be great to see them again there!Ketterechts13-11-2026
- This Giro is very strange in it's circular route. If you were to have stage starting in Trieste and ending atop Monte Zoncolan (end stage 20) you'd get a stage only 145 km long
Rafionain-Glas13-11-2026 - When Thomas gets the bullet from INEOS he can get a job as a comedian.
Senna196013-11-2026 - Right on. The more the merrier.Occam13-11-2026
- Remember, Del Toro struggled in this Tour. He is great, no doubt about that, but comparing him to a four time gt winner is absurd at this point. He has the potential. We'll have to see how he develops.awp13-11-2026
- what did Jonas gift and to whom? just curious, haven’t heard about this.mij13-11-2026
- You don't gift grand tours as it has come to light that Jonas has come to regret doing such.
Front24213-11-2026 - Exactly you said it urslf - he outclimbed del toro by 19 sec. 19SEC and you say hes alot better than del toro still lol? And can also do the same where del toro did that to jonas even and del toro dauphine numbers better than jonas all year so why this hard whats the issue its super easy stuff - del toro wasnt that before. Then factor in both their trajectory the last years and the answer is self explonatory like i said. Nothing against jonas like many do but the typing is no the wall and so stupidly easy as its so self explanatory now. Have a good daymiguel13-11-2026
- Dirty ex doperFront24213-11-2026
- As far as points go they need to take a page or ten out of the Astana playbook!Lozza13-11-2026
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