{"id":231252,"date":"2025-10-29T02:43:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/231252\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T02:43:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:43:18","slug":"wout-van-aert-jokes-about-annexing-flanders-as-training-ramps-up-ahead-of-cyclocross-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/231252\/","title":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert jokes about \u2018annexing Flanders\u2019 as training ramps up ahead of cyclocross comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Van Aert\u2019s latest ride caps off a busy first week back in structured training. The 31-year-old enjoyed a longer-than-usual off-season, including a cultural break in Rome, before logging his first Strava ride last week \u2014 a 100-kilometre effort he jokingly described as \u201cstiff\u201d. Since then, he\u2019s added multiple road sessions, runs through the Zwin nature reserve, and even an early spin on his <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cyclocross\" title=\"Cyclocross\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cyclocross<\/a> bike along the beaches of Knokke.<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian powerhouse has already confirmed he\u2019ll return to cyclocross this winter, though he\u2019s ruled out an early start. His last race was on the 20th of September, and he\u2019s repeatedly said he wants to build back gradually before his eventual return to racing in the mud. \u201cI\u2019ll take about a month off, then start training again at the beginning of November. We\u2019ll see step by step,\u201d Van Aert said earlier this autumn about his plans for the coming winter.<\/p>\n<p>For now, fans can take his Strava feed as the best indicator yet: Wout van Aert is back in business \u2014 and his playful \u201cannexation\u201d of Flanders might just be the first step toward reclaiming dominance in the mud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Van Aert\u2019s latest ride caps off a busy first week back in structured training. The 31-year-old enjoyed a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-231252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}