Belgian cyclist Wout van Aert has earned victories in a variety of races, from sprints and time trials to mountain stages and breakaways. With such a versatile range of achievements, the question naturally arises: could he contend for a Grand Tour title?
A year ago, reports indicated that van Aert, riding for the Visma-Lease a Bike team, would target the general classification (GC) at the 2024 Giro d’Italia. The plan was to test his abilities in three-week racing. However, a broken collarbone and ribs from a crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen delayed his Grand Tour debut until 2025. As he prepares to make his long-awaited Giro appearance, fans are left wondering whether he might consider a GC challenge.
Van Aert, however, has made it clear that winning a Grand Tour is not in his plans. At his team’s training camp in Spain, he firmly stated, “That was never the plan. That was the plan in the newspaper, but not my plan.” He further dismissed the idea, saying, “Not at all. It’s not my plan to do GC. It doesn’t really attract me.”
Given his physical attributes — standing at 1.90m and weighing 78kg — his reluctance makes sense. Despite this, his performances in the Tour de France have highlighted his exceptional climbing abilities, particularly as a support rider for Jonas Vingegaard in the mountains, all while wearing the green jersey as the best sprinter.
For 2025, van Aert has set his sights on making an impact in the Grand Tours, though not for the GC. At the Giro, he plans to target stage wins. “I look at the parcours and there will be opportunities basically every day because there are a lot of intermediate stages,” he said. “Some bunch sprints for Olav [Kooij, his teammate], and then on the mountain days we will support Simon [Yates].”
Van Aert revealed that, at the Giro, his teammate Simon Yates would have a more prominent GC role, with van Aert offering support as necessary. “Simon will have more of a free role to see how good he can do in the GC,” he explained, adding that their approach would be flexible, depending on how the race unfolds.
When it comes to the Tour de France, van Aert’s focus will be on adding to his tally of stage wins — he has already claimed nine stages and worn the yellow jersey — while continuing to support Vingegaard in his battle against Tadej Pogačar. “In the Tour de France it’s quite simple — I’m the lucky one who has a free role to go for stage results. Apart from that, the main focus is to support Jonas,” he said.
Van Aert has been a key part of Vingegaard’s two Tour victories in 2022 and 2023, and although Pogačar claimed the maillot jaune in 2024, van Aert believes the Slovenian will face a greater challenge this summer. “I think everyone needs to step up to catch up with him,” van Aert said. “He definitely raised the bar, he was super strong last year, but on the other hand, I think less visibly it was like this every year. Jonas winning in ’23 was better than Jonas winning in ’22. Even if Pogačar won it in ’24, he needs to be better to win it in ’25. We’re improving year by year.”
Before the Giro and Tour, van Aert will focus on the cobbled Classics, with particular attention on the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, two prestigious Monuments that have eluded him so far. “I’ve been racing the Tour of Flanders since 2018, and from the first edition, it looked really promising that maybe I could win it one day, both Flanders and Roubaix,” he said. “So if you would have asked me then, I probably would have believed it by now that I would have won it, or have been more in a position to win it. But sometimes I was far off or not even at the start.”
With a determined outlook, van Aert expressed his eagerness to have another crack at these iconic races: “For sure, I’m really looking forward to these opportunities again and I do believe that I have it in my legs. The main goal for me is winning the Monuments that are missing.”
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