Proof delivered: Wout van Aert looks ready for another spectacular autumn

Wout van Aert is unquestionably back at a very high level. The Belgian from Visma | Lease a Bike has so often hit peak form in the autumn, and this year the competition again appears to have reason to fear him in the weeks ahead. Van Aert was so strong in stage 3 of the Tour of Denmark on Friday that he still won, even though victory was no longer part of the plan.

Van Aert had already won stages 1 and 2 on Wednesday and Thursday, but for much of the third day another victory did not look inevitable. With 55 kilometres remaining, he was forced across a grass verge while avoiding a crash involving teammate Niklas Behrens. After then suffering a puncture and facing a lengthy chase, the Belgian managed to return to the race.

In the finale, he opened up the race by attacking alongside Christophe Laporte on the finishing circuit, which had to be completed three times. An elite group of ten formed, and Van Aert repeatedly set the tempo at the front. “Here comes Tadej Pogačar again, riding for Isaac del Toro,” one observer joked on X, referring to the Tour de France.

Despite his excursion across the grass, the puncture, the chase and all the work he had done for Laporte, Van Aert still found a way to win. With an explosive attack on the final steep section, he rode every other contender off his wheel. “This is an unexpected victory, because my legs were hurting in the finale,” Van Aert said afterwards. “I didn’t feel great, so we agreed that today would be for Christophe.”

That plan never came to fruition. The Frenchman tried several times to jump clear without success, while Van Aert’s move did stick. The Belgian described the closing phase as a matter of “control”. “We played it smart, I think. Now I mainly want to keep the leader’s jersey; that is the most important thing. We’ll see whether the others bring us to the finish again for another result.”

The run of victories in Denmark will feel particularly satisfying for Van Aert, who missed the Tour de France because of an infected elbow after already spending much of the spring trying to catch up following a broken ankle sustained during cyclocross. Even so, he ended his spring campaign in magnificent fashion by winning Paris-Roubaix, before adding a stage victory at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

His elbow then flared up in that race, having first been injured in a training crash. That forced Van Aert to turn his attention to the races after the Tour, as he has done several times during his career. There were four stage wins and overall victory at the Tour of Britain in 2021, nothing but top-four finishes during the autumn of 2022, victory at the Coppa Bernocchi in 2023 and his extraordinary Vuelta a España campaign in 2024.

In Spain, Van Aert looked untouchable while leading both the points and mountains classifications and having already won three stages, until a crash into a rock left him with a knee injury. He ended his 2025 season early after a long rehabilitation and an intense year of racing. In 2026, however, every signal appears to be green for another major late-season run: first at the Vuelta, then at the World Championships in Canada in September.