Wout van Aert ‘hurt’ by suggestions Visma-Lease a Bike to blame for retirements of teammates Simon Yates and Fem van Empel

Wout van Aert has spoken about the career stoppages of two high-profile Visma-Lease a Bike teammates, noting that his team hasn’t been at fault as Simon Yates and Fem van Empel have stepped away from cycling.

Giro d’Italia winner Yates surprisingly announced his retirement from racing last month, while triple world cyclo-cross champion Van Empel put her career on hold in December after losing her “motivation and enjoyment” for the sport.

However, the reason for the two riders’ decisions lies away from the team, Van Aert told Laurens ten Dam’s Live Slow Ride Fast podcast.

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“I think it’s a shame to magnify the fact that this is something that’s happening within our team, and it even hurts me a little,” he said, according to WielerFlits.

“I truly consider Visma-Lease a Bike my team. I know how things work here, and it’s definitely not an inhumane environment.

“I think it’s a shame that the situation is being generalised when it’s completely unfair.”

Van Aert, who is currently recovering from an ankle fracture that cut short his winter cyclo-cross campaign, said that he respected his teammates’ decisions, given the sacrifices a top-level cycling career requires.

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“I have the utmost respect for Fem and Simon’s decisions, but it has nothing to do with the functioning of our team. I think there’s plenty of room to discuss how you feel and whether you need a different approach, for example, to spend more time at home,” Van Aert said.

“But it’s true, cycling is still cycling. It’s a very tough sport, requiring a lot of sacrifices. And those sacrifices are perhaps even greater now in the data age we’re living in. Everything is constantly being measured.

“You have to constantly report how you train, sleep, and where you hang out. It’s not freestyle anymore. It seems perfectly logical to me that more people are put off by that.”

Van Aert also said he thinks we’ll see more and more similar decisions in cycling in future, with the demands of the sport on its riders only increasing in the modern age.

“I don’t think we can reverse this either. We’ll probably see this more often and consider it more normal. That a 25-year-old rider is fed up with it and says: I’m quitting. That used to be unthinkable.”