Van Aert races young fan: ‘Should have started my CX training earlier’

Update: As per Visma – Lease a Bike, van Aert will not be racing Monday. “Unfortunately, Wout van Aert has fallen ill and will not recover in time for tomorrow’s race in Mol. We wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back in action soon,” the team posted.

Mathieu van der Poel will race ‘cross at the World Cup on Sunday, and then square off against long-time rival Wout van Aert at the Superprestige on Monday. But van Aert already got some race-pace training in against Loïc Wynants. He is the son of van Aert’s former teammate, Maarten Wynants. The Belgian superstar (van Aert, not young Loïc) was out riding with Daan Soete when he went head to head with the two riders.

He did some riding in the forest, then headed out for another 80km riding on the road. Loïc Wynants posted the video of the sprint race between he and Van Aert, which the young fan seems to somehow have taken the win. Afterwards on Strava, Van Aert joked that he should have started his cyclocross training earlier.

Van Aert begins his brief ‘cross schedule December 23 in the Zilvermeercross round of the Superprestige series in Mol, Belgium. Two days after Christmas he’ll take on the Exact Cross Series’ round in Loenhout. In the new year, he will return to the Superprestige at the Gullegem round on January 4.

The next day van Aert switches to the World Cup for three rounds starting in Dendermonde, Belgium. January 19 sees him in Benidorm, Spain. Finally, his mud campaign comes to an end at the Maasmechelen, Belgium World Cup on January 25.

There will be no world championship this season, so we won’t see a rematch of the fantastic battle between him and Mathieu van der Poel that we saw in 2023. “For Wout today was his first cross training in the forest this season,” Soete said to Sporza. “Together with his team he got his equipment in order for the season.”

You can watch van der Poel race at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Zonhoven on the UCI YouTube channel for free on Sunday. On Monday, if you have a FloBikes account, you can watch the Superprestige in Mol.