Wout van Aert is set to kick-off his cyclocross campaign at the end of the month, mixing his winter racing with Jumbo-Visma training camps as he builds up to the World Championships in Hoogerheide on February 5.
Van Aert is due to confirm his full cyclocross schedule on Thursday but several Flemish newspapers claim to have details of his plans.
Van Aert was expected to clash with Mathieu van der Poel and current world champion Tom Pidcock at the Hulst World Cup round on November 27. However, Het Laastse Nieuws and Het Nieuwsblad suggest that he will avoid a direct big-name clash on his season debut by riding the X2O Trofee Kortrijk-Urban Cross on Saturday November 26.
According to Het Laastse Nieuws (opens in new tab), Van Aert will travel to Dublin for the World Cup race on December 11 before joining his Jumbo-Visma teammates for a training camp on the road in Spain in the second half of December.
His intense holiday race programme includes the UCI World Cup in Gavere on December 26, the Heusden-Zolder and Diegem Superprestige races on December 27 and 28, and the Exact Cross Loenhout-Azencross on December 30.
After the New Year, he will kick off 2023 at the X2O Trofee Herentals on January 3, followed by the Koksijde round of the same series on January 5 and then the UCI World Cup in Zonhoven on January 8. That is seven races in just 14 days.
Van Aert will go on to fight for the Belgian title in Lokeren on January 15 before finalising his form for the World Championships at the World Cup in Benidorm, Spain, on January 22. This year’s Worlds take place in Hoogerheide, Netherlands, on February 5, when he will aim for a fourth rainbow jersey.
That will mark the end of Van Aert’s ‘cross campaign, after which he will focus on the road, with he and Jumbo-Visma making the cobbled Classics the major goal for 2023.
He is expected to make his road racing debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday February 25, as he did this year when he won with a solo attack. Van Aert went on to win the E3 Classic but was ruled out of the Tour of Flanders with COVID-19.
It remains to be seen how the 28-year-old structures his season but he is expected to target the major Classics before returning to the Tour de France, where he has won three stages in each of the past two editions.
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