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Whereas Mathieu van der Poel was soloing to victory for his sixth title on the Cyclocross World Championships in Tábor, Wout van Aert was having fun with the sunshine in Mallorca on a espresso experience with Visma-Lease a Bike teammates Tiesj Benoot and Julien Vermote.
On the day of the elite males’s race on the World Championships, the Belgian trio accomplished a 44.5km, hour-and-a-half experience on the Spanish island. Fairly the distinction from his shut rival’s 58-minute blitz across the course in Czechia, attacking away from the remainder of the sector on the opening lap and never being seen once more till the presentation of his sixth elite CX rainbow jersey on the rostrum.
“I even miss complaining about the whole lot over nothing,” learn Van Aert’s Strava caption.
However scrolling additional revealed a 223km, seven-hour coaching experience simply the day prior, with the trio finishing 3,000 metres of elevation acquire alongside the route at a median pace of 31.8 kph.
This exercise comes in direction of the tip of a Spanish coaching block for Van Aert and his teammates forward of his street debut this weekend. On January 21, he took the cyclocross victory forward of Van der Poel in Benidorm.
The Belgian will open his street account on the UCI 1.Professional Clasica de Almeria on the south coast of Spain this Sunday. The 192.3km one-day race has a stacked begin listing with Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Van Aert’s teammate Olav Kooij additionally current.
Van Aert was by no means going to be current to problem Van der Poel in Tábor after deciding cyclocross must take a backseat. That call was made together with the group and new coach Mathieu Hejboer that to get the street outcomes he wishes within the upcoming spring Classics he would forgo CX Worlds.
Cyclocross has been synonymous with Van der Poel and Van Aert’s careers of their rise by means of the ranks of biking as a sport, however the stress has continued to construct for Van Aert to ship a second Monument, at one among both Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders.
After all of the practically days and second-place finishes of 2023, he’s gone all in for that street glory. To not say he hasn’t been extraordinarily profitable already as a winner of Milan-San Remo, Strade Bianche, Gent-Wevelgem, E3 (twice), 9 Tour de France levels and the inexperienced jersey on the Tour.
Nevertheless it’s laborious to not really feel that there needs to be and could possibly be extra. He was second at Worlds in 2023 and 2020, second on the Olympic Video games street race in 2021, with six Monument podiums since his final victory in San Remo 4 years in the past. Van Aert has been unfortunate at occasions (Roubaix final season) sure, however he’ll really feel his legacy within the Classics isn’t accurately.
Hit debut in Almeria can be adopted by an look with Sepp Kuss on the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Inside earlier than heading to the Volta ao Algarve and prepping for the Classics.
There’s no Italian block of racing in February or March with full deal with the larger targets on the finish of spring at Flanders and Roubaix, however Van Aert will make his debut on the Giro d’Italia this summer season, opting to overlook the Tour in July and deal with the Olympics after his time in Italy.
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