Wout van Aert competed in his last road race on Thursday at Gran Piemonte. How does the Jumbo-Visma cyclist evaluate his season? “This is obviously not my best season, but it’s also far from bad. It’s mediocre,” he said in an interview with the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.
“Maybe it’s normal that for the first time things haven’t always gone from highlight to highlight, and there’s a year in between where things get a bit tougher,” Van Aert adds. The 29-year-old rider achieved the necessary podium finishes, but winning proved to be much more challenging. He won the E3 Saxo Classic, the Belgian time trial championship, the Tour of Britain, a stage there, and the Coppa Bernocchi.
Second place often
Van Aert had to settle for second place many times. He finished in second place eight times and third eight times. “There were some second places I could accept, but there were also moments when it could have been different.”
He cites the second stage of the Tour (where Lafay surprised with a sudden attack) and the European Championship in Drenthe (where he took a while to react to an attack by Laporte on the VAM mountain) as examples of such moments. “Paris-Roubaix could have been different too without a flat tire. If you add that up, it could have been a completely different year and a completely different feeling.”
Van Aert doesn’t consider the Jumbo-Visma motto, “win together,” as a burden. “It’s more of a relief. When I was still the constant team leader, I started to get tired more and more because everything always revolved around me. Also on the road, the pressure was always on me in those early years. But there is so much quality in this team that many riders can win: it’s a much more fun way to practice this sport.”
Would Mathieu van der Poel be a shadow?
The interview also discussed his rivalry with Mathieu Van der Poel. Van Aert was asked if he hates Van der Poel. “I hate losing to Mathieu, but I don’t hate him as a person. Maybe we’ve both grown. We understand that we have to accept each other’s presence, and that’s good for the sport and for ourselves.”
Van Aert has Van der Poel’s phone number, but the two never call each other. “This remains a rivalry where we don’t communicate as friends. For both of us, the goal is to beat each other and be better than the other. For that, you need that sense of competition. But if something needs to be discussed, there’s no problem talking to him in the peloton.”
