Despite that tempered assessment, he was quick to stress that his ambitions remain undimmed. “My goal is to be back at one hundred per cent next year, and when I’m at that level I can show something on any parcours. That’s what I’m going to work towards.”
Fewer “Van Aert days” on 2026 route
Van Aert has built his Tour legend on the types of stages that blur categories — crosswinds, steep ramps, messy finales and reduced-bunch sprints where the race turns on positioning and nerve. The 2026 route offers far fewer of those windows, instead leaning towards flat drag-strip sprints and decisive, selective GC battles in the Alps.
Opportunities will still exist — late-race breakaways, unexpected crosswind moments on transition days, or attritional hilly terrain before the mountains — but they look like harder puzzles to solve than in years when the route felt purpose-built for his skill-set.
As such, there is a genuine question over how Visma will deploy Van Aert next July. Will he once again balance key support duties with selective freedom to chase stages? Or will the team ask him to go all-in behind Jonas Vingegaard as the Dane looks to reclaim the Maillot Jaune?
Cross will “give way a little” again — but return is edging closerBefore July, however, comes winter. And while Van Aert will return to cyclocross, the discipline again sits behind his spring and summer targets. He has only recently restarted easy training after what he called a “really enjoyable and much-needed” holiday, and will not rush a decision on his opening CX race.
“I’ve honestly no idea yet,” he said of his comeback date. “Only in the past couple of weeks have I started training again, and very gently at that. My real preparation will start in about ten days. I need to see how I feel then in order to draw up a realistic plan.”
And as in recent seasons, cross will be used as a stepping stone rather than a season-defining target. “It has to fit within my build-up to the road season,” he noted. “As much as I enjoy cross, I’m still hugely ambitious for the Classics. Right now, cross has to give way a little.”
With fitness work now underway and his race legs set to follow soon after, Van Aert appears determined to re-emerge in 2026 as a major force — even if the Tour route may demand creativity in his search for a landmark win.