{"id":581513,"date":"2026-04-04T10:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581513\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T10:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:26:08","slug":"van-der-poel-above-boonen-and-retired-within-five-years-van-aert-gives-his-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581513\/","title":{"rendered":"Van der Poel above Boonen, and retired within five years? Van Aert gives his view"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wout van Aert<\/a> will do everything he can on Sunday to win the Tour of Flanders<\/a>, but the competition will be fierce. Tadej Poga\u010dar is the standout favourite, though Van Aert\u2019s old rival Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> will also be one of the major contenders. And Van Aert clearly holds the Dutchman in very high regard, as he revealed in a conversation with Jan Bakelants that ranged across several topics. <\/p>\n

Van Aert has been a professional cyclocross rider since 2014, and from 2017 onward he was also officially a pro on the road with V\u00e9randas Willems-Crelan. Since 2019 he has raced for Visma | Lease a Bike, then still known as Jumbo-Visma, and he has long been tied closely to the Dutch team. As for when the 31-year-old from Herentals will call time on his career, that remains uncertain, although Van Aert himself knows that the end is gradually drawing closer.<\/p>\n

Bakelants put a series of questions to his friend in a Sporza video posted on Instagram<\/a>. One of them focused on Van Aert\u2019s future: would he already be a former rider in five years\u2019 time? Van Aert needed a moment to think before answering. \u201cThe chance is greater that I will be than that I won\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was also asked about his cyclocross future. During his glittering career, Van Aert has won three elite world titles, although his most recent rainbow jersey dates back to 2018. Can he become world champion again in the years ahead? \u201cI hope so,\u201d he first replied, somewhat cautiously. But when asked to give a more definitive answer, he was firm: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read on below the video!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Boonen or Van der Poel? Van Aert names his pick, and Boonen respondsAcross the Classics, Van Aert has raced against some of the biggest names of his era. Van der Poel, Poga\u010dar, Evenepoel: this is elite company by any standard. Bakelants asked him whether Tom Boonen<\/a> was a greater champion than Van der Poel, and the Belgian answered with complete honesty: \u201cSorry Tom, but for me Mathieu is above him.\u201dBoonen could laugh about it himself on the Dutch-language Wielerclub Wattage<\/a> podcast from VRT. \u201cWout has of course suffered more behind Mathieu than behind me,\u201d he said. \u201cI did a few races and training sessions with Wout in the past, but back then he was only just coming through and he was still a cyclocross rider. In the Heistse Pijl, for example, Wout came along twice, in 2013 and 2014. I won twice. There you go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert will do everything he can on Sunday to win the Tour of Flanders, but the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,13633,82,129961,12290],"class_list":{"0":"post-581513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tom-boonen","14":"tag-wout-van-aert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}