{"id":323030,"date":"2025-12-02T15:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/323030\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T15:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:45:12","slug":"van-aert-to-spoil-van-der-poels-rainbow-record-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/323030\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Aert to spoil van der Poel\u2019s rainbow record bid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wout van Aert\u2019s freshly announced cyclocross calendar listed only eight races<\/a>, and notably not the world championships in Hulst, The Netherlands. Yet Visma \u2013 Lease a Bike is not exactly closing that door completely. After Monday\u2019s schedule reveal, the team now admits that a late addition\u2014just as in previous years\u2014remains possible.<\/p>\n

According to Wielerflits<\/a>, head of performance Mathieu Heijboer struck a far more transparent tone than last winter, when the squad spent months denying any world champs intent before Van Aert ultimately chose to race. This time, Heijboer said he\u2019s \u201cnot saying a full no,\u201d adding that \u201cthe door is slightly ajar\u201d and that any decision will come further down the line. For the moment, he emphasized, the worlds \u201care not part of the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The obstacle is the same every season: timing. Hulst sits just ahead of the spring classics, and the team wants to avoid compromising the Belgian star\u2019s road buildup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a dilemma,\u201d Heijboer said, adding they\u2019ll only judge the feasibility after gauging Van Aert\u2019s condition once the cyclocross block begins on Dec. 20
Following the Belgian Championships in Beringen, Van Aert heads to a training camp through 24 January. If he emerges ahead of schedule\u2014recovering well, racing sharper than expected\u2014Heijboer concedes the worlds could still \u201cpresent itself as an opportunity,\u201d provided it doesn\u2019t disrupt essential preparation.<\/p>\n

Wout van Aert weighs in on cycling\u2019s \u2018fragile\u2019 finances<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The comparison to last year is unavoidable. Back then \u201cthe door looked much more closed,\u201d Heijboer said, before Van Aert pushed it open himself in the final week. This winter, it remains shut\u2014but not locked.<\/p>\n

In the 2024-2025 season, the Belgian only raced five times\u2013but took a world cup win, and a solid second at the world championships behind Mathieu van der Poel. There too, he wasn\u2019t supposed to race but decided to extend his \u2018cross season by one more weekend. Van Aert had a rough start but plowed on to take silver. Could he challenge the Dutchman for gold, with another incredible duel like in years past?<\/p>\n

The Alpecin\u2013Deceuninck star is aiming to surpass Erik De Vlaeminck\u2019s record seven world titles next year, and also recently announced his \u2018cross season. It\u2019s a little longer than van Aert\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The defending world champion shaping his winter around the World Cup, with Namur penciled in as a possible opener depending on his road condition. He\u2019ll focus on major rounds\u2014Antwerp, Koksijde, Gavere, Zonhoven, Maasmechelen and Hoogerheide\u2014before heading to Hulst, where he can surpass Erik De Vlaeminck\u2019s record seven world titles. He also plans to race Hofstade, Loenhout, Baal and Mol, for a maximum of roughly 13 events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert\u2019s freshly announced cyclocross calendar listed only eight races, and notably not the world championships in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[181808,64,63,784,77973,85,58412],"class_list":["post-323030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-uci-cyclocross-world-championships","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-sports","tag-wout-van-aert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}