‘Wout will never be happy if he has to watch every cyclo-cross race on TV’ – Van Aert’s coach explains why Belgian star needs to compete in winter despite lack of wins

Wout van Aert has yet to win a cyclo-cross race this winter, but the Visma-Lease a Bike racer has no thoughts about leaving the discipline behind, according to team management. The reason is simple: he enjoys it too much.

A former three-time cyclo-cross world champion, albeit most recently in 2018, the 31-year-old’s closest result of five race participations to date this winter was when he was narrowly outduelled by Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceunink) at the Superprestige in Heusden-Zolder on December 23.

But as Visma-Lease a Bike head of performance Mathieu Heijboer told Het Laatste Nieuws, the lack of a victory may be disappointing in itself, but that won’t take away from the satisfaction Van Aert derives from taking part in cyclo-cross. And it certainly won’t stop him from racing it in the future, either.

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“Physically, perhaps, but everything hinges on a rider’s happiness with what they’re doing;” Heijboer said when asked if a winter without cyclo-cross might be better for Van Aert when it came to fighting for the Classics next spring.

“Wout will never be happy if he trains from October to February and has to watch every cyclo-cross race on TV. Then we’ll have a Wout who’s no longer interested in February. He’s too much of an enthusiast for now to expect him to give up cyclo-cross.”

Heijboer even said that the previously ruled-out possibility of a Cyclo-cross World Championships participation in Hulst on February 1 actually remained on the table. Or as he put it, “the door is still ajar.”

Van Aert is next due to race at Mol on January 2, and Zonhoven on January 4. For now he is set to conclude his ‘cross campaign in the Belgian national championships in Beringen on January 11.

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But as Heijboer put it to HLN, there was still a slight chance of him pushing on with more off-road racing until later in the year.

“We’re working towards the Belgian Championships. We’ll also take a little more rest the week beforehand, so he can really deliver a top performance. If we see he’s still developing and doing really well by then, there’s room to add the World Championships. But we’ve also agreed not to get ahead of ourselves just yet.”

In the broader scheme of things, Heijboer said, although the short, intense format of cyclo-cross races made it hard to use for a full picture about a rider’s condition for longer-term goals, Van Aert’s condition was good. The evidence of that was a current maximum heart-rate of 195 and fast recovery from the races he’d taken part in. Another difference, too, was that in the 2024-2025 season, Van Aert’s bad crash in the preceding Vuelta a España and severe knee injury was much closer in the rear-view mirror.

“Wout is much sharper than he was last year. He’s also much calmer and more relaxed. You can see he’s really enjoying it; even after he missed a win, the disappointment quickly fades. Last year, there was still a lot of tension because of that long and difficult rehabilitation.”

The road, in any case, is far from forgotten, either, Heijboer pointed out. “Wout will have another long training session on the road on Wednesday, so we’ll have another good three-day block. He’s definitely racking up enough [road] cycling time compared to the other road riders.”

Although not confirmed by Van Aert or the team, there are rumours he’ll start his 2026 road calendar at Strade Bianche before heading into the Classics, followed by the Tour de France, possibly the Vuelta a España and then the Road World Championships.