Omloop Het Nieuwsblad | 24 Feb 24 | |||||
Tour de France Stage 10 | 06 Jul 21 | |||||
Tour De France Stage 7 | 04 Sep 20 | |||||
Tour De France Stage 5 | 02 Sep 20 | |||||
Wout van Aert (born 15 September 1994) is a Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Jumbo–Visma. He won the men's elite race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He joined Team Jumbo–Visma in March 2019, on a three-year deal after terminating his contract with Vérandas Willems–Crelan in 2018.
Career
Van Aert was born in Herentals, Flanders, and started his career in cyclo-cross where he became World champion (2016, 2017, 2018) and Belgian champion (2016, 2017, 2018).
He rode the 2018 Strade Bianche, held partly on gravel roads in torrential rain. He broke away with Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and the pair lead the race for much of the final 40 kilometres (25 miles) before Tiesj Benoot (Lotto–Soudal) attacked from a chasing group to catch and then drop them in the final sector of dirt roads. Benoot soloed to victory by 39 seconds ahead of Bardet, who dropped van Aert in the final kilometre; van Aert ultimately completed the podium a further 19 seconds in arrears, despite having to remount his bicycle after falling on the final climb in Siena.