After Ventoux spectacle, Van Wilder hopes it is now his turn: “I’ve helped others a lot — now I want to help myself”

It was one of the images of Tour de France 2025, stage 16. After being dropped earlier, Van Wilder suddenly reappeared at the front as if from nowhere, latching back on to the leading trio on Mont Ventoux. Team-mate Valentin Paret-Peintre looked across and found Van Wilder right there beside him.

With a huge turn on the front, Van Wilder ensured the GC favourites could not claw their way back. “I know I’m good at altitude, so I could use that compared to the others. Being able to help Valentin there was a fantastic feeling,” Van Wilder said on the Wolfpack Howls Podcast.

“I think I showed last year that I can consistently fight for top-10 places in WorldTour stage races. I’m very happy with how last year went,” Van Wilder reflected. But the Belgian’s peak moments in 2025 were not limited to stage races.

At the World Championships time trial in Kigali, Van Wilder shocked friend and foe by taking bronze — ahead of riders such as Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro. “This is a result I never thought I could achieve. It’s given me a lot of confidence to believe that sometimes I can do even more than I already think,” Van Wilder said months later, still sounding amazed.

Van Wilder then had to sweat it out in the hot seat, watching the clock as Pogacar threatened to steal the medal right at the end. “He came so incredibly close — I just kept counting down the seconds,” he admitted.

The road race at the same World Championships unfortunately brought Van Wilder’s season to an early end. “The crash was annoying and it hurt, but I went home with a medal, so then it doesn’t really matter that much,” he said. “After that I was very patient and I worked calmly towards next season.”

Van Wilder also looked back on his first seasons with the team, when he often sacrificed his own chances for others — not only for Evenepoel, but also for example for Paret-Peintre on that Ventoux stage. “I’ve helped a lot of team-mates win — now I want to help myself a bit,” he said. With Evenepoel leaving, a space opens up. Van Wilder will not “replace” him — nobody can — but it could bring him more freedom to chase results of his own.

“I hope to get the same chances as last year, and just a little bit more. Above all, I want to make sure I take another step in the right direction,” Van Wilder said, looking ahead to the coming season. “I’ve come through the winter really well despite my wrist injury in the Worlds road race, so I hope I can make it a great year,” he concluded.