Wout van Aert

Wout van Aert (born 15 September 1994) is a Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. Van Aert won three consecutive men's races at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Having initially prioritised competing in cyclo-cross, Van Aert terminated his contract with Vérandas Willems–Crelan in 2018 and joined Team Jumbo–Visma in March 2019, on a three-year deal. Van Aert has since taken more than fifty professional road wins, including ten stage victories at the Tour de France between 2019 and 2025 (also winning the points classification in 2022), and won Milan–San Remo – one of the five Cycling monuments – in 2020.

Following the 2022 Tour de France, where Van Aert won three stages, several media outlets labeled him as "one of the most complete cyclists of his generation". His rivalry with Mathieu van der Poel in cyclo-cross is considered among the greatest and longest lasting rivalries in the sport.

Career

Early career

Van Aert was born in Herentals, Flanders, into a family not involved in bike racing. One of his father's cousins is Dutch former professional cyclist Jos van Aert. He started his career in cyclo-cross where he became World champion (2016, 2017, 2018) and Belgian champion (2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022).

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 led 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 finished third, 19 seconds behind, despite falling on the final climb in Siena.