In the cyclocross world, Wout van Aert has picked up where Mathieu van der Poel left off–dominating. But with the beginning of the WorldTour just over two weeks away at the Santos Tour Down Under, it’s time to think about the road. On Monday, Dutch news source Het Laatste Nieuws revealed van Aert’s road plans for 2025, and a debut at the Giro d’Italia and a seventh Tour de France start are on the program.
Wout van Aert had a difficult 2024 even with a Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne title, a Paris Olympic Games time trial bronze and three stages of the Vuelta a España. Van Aert’s crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen took him out of competition for two months. While leading both the points and mountains competition at the Vuelta after wearing red for two stages, the Belgian was part of a three-man breakaway when he suffered a wreck that ended his season and held him out of competition until December 27 when he raced the fifth round of the Exact Cross series where he came fourth.
Wout’s road season launches February 17 at the Clásica Jaén in Spain, before hitting Portugal’s Volta ao Algarve to prepare for a spring Classics season. After training at altitude, van Aert will tackle E3 Saxo Classic, Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and his biggest one-day targets, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Van Aert has an opportunity to add Giro wins to his nine Tour stages and hat trick of 2024 Vuelta victories. Van Aert also claimed the green points jersey in the 2022 Tour.
Skipping the Belgian CX nationals this weekend and Worlds in two weeks, van Aert’s final ‘cross races are the Benidorm and Maasmechelen World Cups.
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