Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is in Canada for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Montréal, the first races on a ‘Worlds’ tour that will see him circumnavigate the globe with the hope of ending his incredibly successful 2022 season by claiming the rainbow jersey in Wollongong.
The Belgian, like several big-name rivals Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco), Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) will fly west from Canada to Los Angeles next Monday and on to Australia to limit travel time and arrive early down under for a final block of intense training before the men’s World Championships road race on Sunday September 25.
Van Aert has never ridden the Canadian WorldTour races before but openly talked about winning either in Quebec on Friday or Montreal on Sunday to affirm his form and World Championships ambitions.
“These two races are on the bucket list for me to win. Winning these races itself is a big goal,” he told the media, including Cyclingnews, in Quebec on Wednesday afternoon.
“So far it’s a really cool experience. It’s a completely different vibe than we’re used to in the European races where everybody is a bit on their own. Here, everyone is more or less all together. That’s nice.
I’m looking forward to the races. I saw the final kilometres today of a little bit of the circuit in Quebec and it looks really hard. It’s really for explosive riders, for Classic specialists. They’re races we’re really motivated for.”
Van Aert opted to fly direct from Paris to Quebec on a scheduled flight rather than take the flights offered by race organisers to Montreal followed by a four-hours bus journey to Quebec. Delays meant his flight stopped over in Brest for several hours but he was up early on Wednesday to train with his Jumbo-Visma teammates and all the other teams in Canada for the two races.
The 90 minutes sitting on the runway at the tip of France allowed Van Aert to watch the dramatic end of the Vuelta a España stage, seeing how fellow Belgian but rival trade team rider Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) suffered a late puncture, while teammate Primož Roglič crashed in sight of the finish after going on the attack. Roglič was forced to quit the Vuelta due to his injuries, ending hopes of a fourth consecutive victory.
“I was cheering for Primož and I think he did a really really nice attack, something that nobody expected from the GC guys. It was a shame to see him crash,”…
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