Jan Bakelants comments on what close friend Van Aert has been through: "I can tell you — that cuts deep"

The scenes from inside the Roubaix Vélodrome were spectacular. Wout van Aert fell into the arms of his family, his team, his friends — even his fellow professionals could not hold back the emotion. Jan Bakelants is one of Van Aert's closest friends, and knows better than anyone what the man from Herentals has been through to return to this level.

Bakelants shed a tear when Van Aert crossed the line in triumph after his duel with Tadej Pogačar. "Of course I got emotional watching the images of Wout's victory," the former professional wrote in his column for Het Laatste Nieuws. "Like every Fleming, I think. Wout is the perfect son-in-law. I don't think there was anyone who didn't wish him this."

"Obviously this was a deeply charged victory because of the death of Michael Goolaerts, but behind Wout's tears there was more than that," he continued. "Wout is a rider with incredible physical qualities — in 2020 he was perhaps the best in the world — but because of the bad luck he has had in recent years, he has not been able to build the palmarès in the classics that people — and he himself — had expected."

"It is only logical that he struggled with that. I still remember his crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen, where he was essentially bowled off the road. When that same spring you see your great rival — the one you fought countless battles with in the youth categories — winning one race after another, that obviously does not feel good."

It was not just Dwars door Vlaanderen that went wrong. In recent years, the Belgian from Visma | Lease a Bike has crashed time and again — even this winter he broke his ankle. "Despite those setbacks, the many crashes, Wout never gave up on himself. Every single time he picked himself back up and wanted to take that extra step in his rehabilitation to become the best version of himself again. I saw that with my own eyes."

According to Bakelants, the stage win on the Champs-Élysées was a turning point. "During that Tour, he sometimes gave me the feeling that he had let it go a bit — that he had accepted he could no longer reach the level of men like Pogačar and Van der Poel. But that victory gave him the feeling that he still had it, and motivated him to give everything this spring."

"That he beats the world champion today in a head-to-head duel, in a race that has always been a huge goal for him, in what can honestly be called the autumn of his career — that is incredibly beautiful. And after a career of falling down and getting back up, to win precisely in a race defined by falling down and getting back up is also deeply symbolic. It is only natural that the emotions come flooding out."

Bakelants crashed plenty himself, especially towards the end of his career. "And meanwhile, my children at home started asking why I never won a race — Wout experienced that too. I can tell you: that cuts deep. When I finally won a stage in the Tour of Wallonia, it was such an incredible release that I cried like a small child."

Van Aert's Milan-Sanremo victory in 2020 was his last Monument win before Sunday — six years ago. It is a feeling of deliverance, Bakelants says. At 31, the end of his career is slowly beginning to loom. The fact that he got to raise a cobblestone trophy above his head will do him a world of good. It should also give him wings.

"The weight that has been lifted from his shoulders should help him go all-out for stage wins at the Vuelta later this year," Bakelants wrote. "And I think — and above all hope — that after all the setbacks of recent years, he is going to do something he has perhaps done too little of in the past: enjoy this victory, together with his family."