CYCLO-CROSS – From Benidorm 2024 to Benidorm 2025: For Wout Van Aert, a new start

Here is Wout van Aert again under the Spanish sun, or almost, the sky having become gloomy in recent days on the Costa Blanca. And with a big smile to boot. Like many compatriots, vacationers or cyclists, and like most of his colleagues in the peloton, the Belgian star has his habits between Alicante and Calpe. He has been training there since adolescence and, although it was not until the 10th stage of the 2024 Vuelta to see him win a road race in Spain, the cyclo-cross of Benidorm had already offered him similar happiness, there is one year old. Van Aert comes forward as the big favorite to do it again this Sunday and sign a success which augurs, he hopes, a much more favorable future than last year.

On January 21, 2024, the great Belgian shined. The air was mild, its winter campaign found a victorious conclusion on the Mediterranean coast and the all-terrain Visma-Lease a Bike could look forward to spring after having avoided the glitches…”I am especially happy to be able to finish this race safe and sound“, he whispered. “There have been many incidents. Mathieu van der Poel has also had his share of bad luck.“Reckless in a rapid sequence, the Dutchman even bit the dust. The dynamics quickly reversed: historic spring for MVDP; annus horribilis for WVA.

The Belgian quickly had bad luck in the Clasica Jaen – “Let’s just say it wasn’t the best experience.“, he smiles today. Above all, he was crushed on the Flemish bitumen at the end of March, during a fall at very high speed on the roads of Across Flanders. His complaint, when he lying on his side, still resonated when Van der Poel flew over the Flandrian mountains and the Roubaisian cobblestones. With multiple fractures (clavicle, sternum, ribs) and a pulmonary contusion, Van Aert. had to be champing at the bit, sharing a simple walk on Strava at the beginning of April. The triumph on the cobbled Monuments will still have to wait.

“I have been competing in the Tour of Flanders since 2018 and, from the first edition, it was very promising to envisage a victory one day, both in Roubaix and in the Ronde“, he observes today. “At that time, I certainly believed that I would have prevailed by now, […]. Sometimes it's luck, like the puncture in Roubaix [en 2023]Covid infection a few days before Flanders [en 2022] or the fall of this year, but I can't say what would have happened if I had been at the start.”

We don't know what his debut at the Giro, scheduled for May 2024, would have been, but we can easily imagine that he would have hosted the race on all terrains, and probably won one or more bouquets, as he aspires to. in 2025: “Looking at the course, there will be opportunities just about every day.“Dismissed from Tadej Pogačar's rosy demonstration, Van Aert rebuilt himself in pain.”It wasn't always easy being on the sidelines“, he confided before resuming the Tour of Norway at the end of May. The Belgian is in uncertainty but his “test” is validated, with a 3rd place during the 4th and final stage.

He can head towards the Tour, where the yellow jersey escapes him during the 1st stage, when he settles the peloton a handful of seconds behind Romain Bardet. Success still slips through his fingers in Villeneuve-sur-Lot and Pau (2nd each time) but Van Aert can be proud: “I worked very hard, just to be able to be here.” In the wake of the Tour, bronze in the time trial of the Olympic Games restores all its shine to his champion's smile: “It's in my character to fight. My only talent is knowing how to ride a bike.“

After the struggles, the horizon has finally cleared for Van Aert. The Portuguese start of the Vuelta quickly gave him the Roja as leader and a stage victory, his first success since the opening weekend of the Belgian classics at the end of February. “It's been a long time since I've been able to raise my arms and it feels really good“, he breathes. Unstuck, he does it again in Spain, in a sprint (in Cordoba, 7th stage) or in a breakaway (Baiona, 10th stage), under the eyes of his family who came to visit him. “It's even more special“, relishes the Belgian. The harder the fall will be.

Even UAE Team Emirates' climbing squad is stifled by its might in the fight for the polka dot jersey. All eyes are on Van Aert. The consternation is even greater when we find him on the ground, the victim of another fall in the Lagos de Covadonga stage. “We were all shocked in the gruppetto when we saw it“, says Victor Campenaerts, defector from Lotto to Visma this season. “He was on the ground and we knew he was driving at least ten minutes ahead of us.”

This time, it was the knee that took, badly. Back in hospital, end of season and Van Aert still has to rebuild. He has to wait three weeks to walk around three kilometers without crutches, before planning to return to the cyclo-cross circuits. And even today, “I feel my knee every day, and even my back and my ribs because of the March fall“, he explained to Het Laatste Nieuws after his victory in the mud in Dendermonde at the beginning of January.

Van Aert remains dented. The scars on his knee are impressive. But he regained his smile, his confidence and his Strava activity regained all its glory thanks to repeated courses on the Costa Blanca, in November, in December and again in January. In ten days, he has just published nine cycling activities and two walking outings. The lights are green. But spring is still far away.