His departure from Lotto: “It hurt me not to receive an offer”
“I spent six superb years with Lotto, a team in which I first played in the junior team before turning pro in June 2020. I knew everyone there, staff as well as riders, and I always knew exactly who to contact when I had a particular need I formed strong bonds with some of my partners and I actually consider Cédric Beullens and Brent Van Moer to be two of my best friends I never really had to. complain of anything and I felt supported in the team, but it hurt me not to receive a concrete offer to extend my contract when, in the conversations, it had been made clear to me that the desire to keep me existed Nothing says that I would have stayed, but, in this case, it's a bit as if someone had made the choice for me to leave for me. I know that professional cycling is a world of choice. business where it is a question of budgets and visions, but I regret always a little bit that things turned out this way.”
His arrival at UAE: “I didn’t make this choice for the money”
“After initial contacts through my agent Dries Smets, I then spoke with Mauro Gianetti (Editor’s note: the general manager of the UAE team) during a video interview. He clearly explained to me the role in which he saw me. I will obviously earn a much better living than at Lotto, I will not hide it, but I can also assure you that money was not the determining factor in my decision since I could have benefited from the same salary with some of the other training groups that approached me. I consider myself a still relatively young runner, I will only be 26 in March and I felt it was the right time for me to step out of my comfort zone. The difference between success and a place of honor sometimes comes down to a few details, those famous percent in preparation that are so difficult to achieve. But I believe I am in the best environment to continue to progress.”
His dream of a great classic: “The presence of Pogacar can be an advantage”
“I have set myself a goal for these next two seasons (the duration of his contract) at UAE: I want to win a great World Tour classic. I know it's ambitious but I think I'm in the best context to be able to aim high (laughs)… On the Tour of Flanders, we will have the big favorite in our ranks with Tadej (Pogacar). But I think his presence can also be an advantage for Nils Politt, Tim Wellens, Antonio Morgado or myself. Collectively, we will have several great cards in our deck, and it will then be up to us to bring them down at the right time and in the smartest way possible. Tadej is also the first to have understood all the benefits that could be derived from this situation. During the classics where the world champion will not be present (Editor's note: he will also participate in E3 and Ghent-Wevelgem)I will then benefit from a free role. I have often been present in the final of the classics, but now I want to take a step forward. I dream of one day winning Paris-Roubaix!”
His femur injury: “I established my best values at the end of the 2024 season”
“My fractured femur following my fall in the last Tour of Murcia, last February, is definitely ancient history. I have recovered perfectly on a physical level since I even established the best values of my 2024 season during a last month of competition during which I managed to get a podium at the gravel world championships (2nd derriere van der Poel). I no longer feel any pain and I have never had any doubts about my return even if I must admit that it is not easy on a mental level to return to the path of training with a level very different from the one on which we can usually rely (laughs). I feared for a time that this injury would occur at the worst possible time as my contract with Lotto was coming to an end at the end of the year but I quickly noticed that the team managers who were interested in my services had not were cooled when I showed them how the injury was progressing.”
Bad news for Lotto Dstny and Arnaud De Lie: Florian Vermeersch has fractured his femur and will miss the classics
His re-election as municipal councilor: “I had enough votes to become alderman”
“After a first term in office following the 2018 elections, I was reappointed as municipal councilor in Lochristi last October. In theory, I had enough preference votes (837 compared to 470 six years ago) to be able to claim a position as alderman but I did not consider myself to have the experience or availability necessary to be able to properly assume this function. Attending the various municipal councils has, on the other hand, until now, never posed too many problems for me since I have hardly missed a single one. When I presented myself on the lists (Open VLD)it seemed like a big leap into the unknown for me but I really like politics, this feeling of getting involved and feeling for my little town. It's hard to predict what tomorrow will bring, but it's an area in which I want to develop sustainably.”
His passion for history: “The places that Ghent-Wevelgem travel through fascinate me”
“I am still studying history currently. I don't really know if the combination between my course and my status as a professional runner will still be possible in the coming years but as long as it suits me, I will continue (laughs)… I try to complete one subject per semester, which means that I will have obtained my diploma in the best case in ten years, which does not bother me because I attach a lot of importance to it. I am passionate about the two world wars and actually took an excursion last fall to the Westhoek. This region, which Ghent-Wevelgem crisscrosses, fascinates me! But I still prefer to win in Roubaix (laughs)!”
Wout van Aert looks back on his fall at the Vuelta: “I no longer had the energy to start from scratch”
