Lars Boven, part of Jumbo-Visma's off-road staff, details how Wout van Aert's decision to start his cyclocross season next weekend in Essen came along, and expectations for his return to the discipline where he grew into a world-calss rider.
"This is a program that we came up with together, so it is a great plan," Boven shared with In de Leiderstrui. Van Aert will miss his home cross in Herentals on the following weekend as he will be in a team training camp, however will restart his competition later on into the Christmas block. "We have made good decisions and it is also difficult: in the winter we want him to ride every cross and in the summer they want to see him ride every race, but that is not possible. But you have to make choices."
Van Aert specially, a rider with such talent and versatility, is forced to skip races that suit him. He will cut the CX season short and will not race the World Championships, in the spring he will also likely not be present in the stage-races that make up March and Milano-Sanremo. All of this in the sake of performance and trying to be at his sharpest level when it matters the most - in this case, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix where he seeks a big win. He will have a more conservative spring in terms of racing as well because he will certainly race the Giro d'Italia this year.
"I think it is like this with Wout, but also with Mathieu and Tom: even if they are a little worse, they can participate well. The preparation is going well and it will take some time, but we thought that too two years ago and then he won in Boom with a two-minute difference," Boven continues. Van Aert's provisional schedule is set to end on the 21st of January in Benidorm. "Essen is a cross that he has done before and he thinks it is a nice cross, so it is also nice to be able to go out into the meadow again after some training."
🗓️ The 🇳🇱 Mathieu van der Poel, 🇧🇪 Wout van Aert and 🇬🇧 Tom Pidcock cyclocross calendar 2023-2024. ⚔️ 🔸 6 races with the 'Big 3' 🔸 +2 with MVDP and WVA (Mol + Baal) 🔸 +1 with MVDP and Pidcock (Diegem) WVA not 100% confirmed yet for Zonhoven and Benidorm.
