Wout van Aert’s 2025 Classics campaign so far: 11th at Omloop Nieuwsblad, 75th at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and 15th at E3 Saxo Classic. Two years ago, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider was at the front of these races. In the 2023 edition of E3, for example, he outsprinted Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar mano-a-mano to the line in Harelbeke, not only proving himself as one of the best, but even better than the best. Fast forward 24 months and he is nowhere to be seen when it matters, lost among the mess of the peloton, out of position in crucial moments. The gap between Van Aert and Van der Poel on the cobbles has never been bigger – one is riding away at the front of the bike race, while the other isn't even scraping a top-10 finish. Where did it all go wrong for the Belgian rider?
In order to dissect Van Aert’s fall away from being a serious Monument contender, we must look back at two key moments, starting with the 2024 edition of Dwars Door Vlaanderen. On that fateful day in March, the 30-year-old suffered a crash that would leave him with a broken collarbone and several broken ribs, taking him out of racing for just over two months. And that was just the first. Fast forward six months later to stage 16 of the 2024 Vuelta a España and we come to the second. After winning three stages and looking to be back to his best, Van Aert crashed hard on an innocuous descent on the way to Lagos de Covadonga. A hard blow to his knee meant that his 2024 season would end there. Ever since, it has seemed as if Van Aert is still searching for his former self.
While his showing at Opening Weekend in 2025 was spirited and determined – he made attacks on the cobbled climbs and he tried his best to animate the races to create situations that would suit him – the results did not come. No panic, was the consensus afterwards; there was still another month until his main targets. Van Aert then skipped races like Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo with the aim of being in his best form for the events he loves most: the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Without Pogačar taking to the start of E3 Saxo Classic – a key warm-up race for De Ronde – this should have been the perfect opportunity for Van Aert to test his legs against the other favourites for victory on a relatively level-playing field, but the Visma-Lease a Bike rider did not look himself on the slick Belgian roads on Friday.
It’s true that, through no fault of his own, he was in a split early on in the race following a mass crash, but this was the same split that caught out Van der Poel and Filippo Ganna, who eventually finished first and third overall in the race. Van Aert even had Jorgenson in the front group at the moment of the split, which meant he had an excuse not to do any work in order to bring things back together, unlike the team of Alpecin-Deceuninck. Still, however, when the attacks came on the climbs afterwards, Van Aert could not follow. He looked to lose close to 10 positions on the approach to the crucial Taaienberg, seeming nervous and tentative in the bunch. The 2025 version of Wout van Aert is not the same as in years gone by.
It is understandable that the number of serious crashes in such a short period of time would be impacting Van Aert’s confidence in the peloton, though his problems with positioning look to be down to a lack of form too. His teammates such as Matteo Jorgenson are appearing stronger and more well-drilled than Van Aert in the Classics this season, despite the fact that Visma-Lease a Bike are all-in for the Belgian rider (who signed a lifetime contract with the team just last year.) There is now just one week until the Tour of Flanders, and two weeks until Paris-Roubaix. Can we expect things to get better for Van Aert? Is there time to turn things around?
Van Aert still has Dwars door Vlaanderen on his programme next week – the race where it all went wrong last season. This will be a final chance for him to sharpen up ahead of the big showdown in De Ronde. It’s clear that skipping races like Sanremo hasn’t seemed to help Van Aert when it comes to performance, so it’s possible he could improve with more race days. If physical form is more of an issue than positioning, then Roubaix with its flat parcours may be better suited to Van Aert, but he could do with a confidence boost before taking on the Hell of the North.
The reality, as harsh as it may be, is that Van Aert does not seem to be on the same level as the superstars who are at the front of the biggest bike races in the world today. Pogačar and Van der Poel are expected to be a class above at Flanders, and in the tier just beneath them – at the moment – are riders like Pedersen and Ganna. We must remember, however, that Van Aert has returned from setbacks before and is a fighter who will not be counted out easily. It’s going to be a tall order for him to see the podium in the Monuments to come, but nothing is impossible. After today, however, the hardest thing for Van Aert could be holding on to that belief.
