Wout van Aert: "I went on holiday when Mathieu already started training. Then there's no room for fairy tales"

The day before the cyclo-cross, Jan Boven reflected with us on everything that had happened in the past months. "Ultimately, we went in with a very different objective than last year. This year, the goal was to ride some great cyclo-cross races, although we did notice Wout really felt the spark after the race in Hulst. But then Mathieu van der Poel was so good in Baal that that thought was immediately crushed for Wout."

"After Baal, he was disappointed, but ultimately he was kind of okay with it when we related it back to the bigger plan," Boven said. "He knows where he wants to be this spring and has now also taken a good step forward in the training camp. After the cyclo-cross in Benidorm, he will stay with his family for another week to do a solid training block. He still enjoys cyclo-cross, but also knows that certain choices have consequences and that he needs to keep making them. He really wants to win Roubaix and Flanders, and every year that doesn't happen is a lost year."

With these thoughts in mind, we could gauge the situation with the main character himself the next day, a good half hour after his victory. "It was the same way in Zolder and Essen. But now I could go deep, take part in the race, and challenge Mathieu, which I hadn't managed to do this winter. I am especially happy with that," said Van Aert.

So, about that cyclo-cross season: how does he look back on it overall now? "I had an easy winter, until I came to race cyclo-cross for the first time. I really needed that rest to stay in the shadows and to be able to build up without any pressure, but as Wout van Aert, you are immediately back in the spotlight and then you have to explain yourself each time. That's not always easy, but we stuck to our approach."

"We started with a different approach, and I am the first to admit that it was not always easy to put aside those expectations and look at the bigger picture," the Belgian agrees in his typical straightforward way. "We did continue to do that, and in the past two weeks, we have worked hard. It was nice to now see the results of that in the race. However, there are still two months left until the most important races, and I will need that time."

The gap with Mathieu was clearly visible around the Christmas period, but now in Benidorm, it seemed that Van Aert had already made progress closing that a little bit. On the uphill asphalt stretch in particular, it was evident that the Belgian was suffering, but he held his ground. “I went on vacation when Mathieu already started to train, and if you have to face the best rider in the world after that... You shouldn't think that with three or four weeks less training, you can just pick up the gauntlet. Everyone has seen the level he reached,” he states.

"It doesn't matter how badly people want it, but there is no room for fairy tales in those circumstances. Then it's just logical that you can't compete. Now we're a few weeks down the line and it's already a bit better, and soon we'll start the spring season that we are now working towards. Hopefully, it will also work out then. That's what we're training and working hard for," the Belgian concludes his cyclo-cross winter. He will resume in two weeks in Spain with the Clasica Almeria and Clasica Jaén, following which he will travel to Portugal for the Tour of the Algarve.