Tiesj Benoot has left Visma | Lease a Bike — but still expresses hopeful words about Wout van Aert

Ex-Visma rider Tiesj Benoot is convinced that Wout van Aert can win Paris–Roubaix in 2026. If the Belgian gets through the upcoming winter without issues, his former teammate sees little reason not to believe in him. According to Benoot, the problems in 2024 and 2025 had clear causes.

Benoot — who spent four years with Visma | Lease a Bike but opted for a new challenge with Decathlon CMA CGM Team for 2026 — witnessed up close how strong Van Aert can be. When he joined the team in 2022, Van Aert arguably delivered his most impressive Tour de France ever: he won three stages and played a pivotal role in leading Jonas Vingegaard to the overall victory over Tadej Pogačar.

That same year, Van Aert also won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, picked up a stage and the points jersey in Paris–Nice, triumphed in the E3 Saxo Classic, finished second in Roubaix, third in Liège, won two races and the green jersey in the Critérium du Dauphiné. After the Tour he added the Bretagne Classic – Ouest–France, did well in the Canadian one-day races and excelled at the World Championships.

In 2023 Van Aert again won the E3, but illness after the cyclocross season left him playing catch-up in several races. A puncture in Paris–Roubaix was also pure bad luck. With Mathieu van der Poel dominating many of the big targets, Van Aert closed out 2023 with wins at the Tour of Britain and the Coppa Bernocchi — and looked ahead to 2024 with confidence.

But 2024 went disastrously wrong. Even after winning Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, Van Aert crashed hard in Dwars door Vlaanderen. He missed the entire spring classics season and the Giro d'Italia due to serious injuries. Later, after a difficult Tour de France, he returned strongly in the Vuelta a España — only to suffer a knee injury while wearing both the green (points) jersey and the polka-dot (mountain) jersey, and already carrying three stage wins.

"I think we cannot underestimate the season Wout had in 2024: the injuries he had were super demanding both physically and mentally,” Benoot now says in an interview with Domestique. “Last year, he was still actually more in a rehab mode in November, December and January, whereas now he can really build again. Going from year to year without big injuries is something that is often underestimated – it’s so important to be able to train well every year without big setbacks.”

When Van Aert won a gravel stage in the Giro d’Italia en route to Siena, it reinforced what Benoot had been thinking. It was only on the final day of the Tour de France that Benoot, in his view, saw the “real” Van Aert again. "I think his victory on Montmartre on the Tour meant that he could turn the page mentally. He won a stage in the Tour again and he actually did it in a head-to-head with Tadej Pogacar."

Based on that, Benoot believes Van Aert can challenge in the classics of 2026 — and parcours-wise he sees Paris–Roubaix as the more likely target than Tour of Flanders. "You never know how it goes, but if he’s in super shape on the day, then he can do it. He finished last season on a good level and if he has a good winter, that will really make a big difference."