Van Aert and Visma still weighing up Strade Bianche: “That doesn’t mean you drop Pogačar”

Van Aert will have circled the Tuscan one-day race in red. He won Strade Bianche in 2020 and, although he hadn’t returned since 2021, his 2025 Giro d’Italia stage win into Siena over gravel roads is still fresh in the memory. Everyone is looking forward to seeing Van Aert on the sterrati again — but how realistic is a top result this weekend?

The Belgian once again didn’t enjoy a smooth winter. First there was a small ankle fracture in cyclo-cross, then — a week before Opening Weekend — he picked up a bout of flu. “There are a lot of questions, and I hope to have more answers tonight,” he said pointedly at the start of Le Samyn. “I couldn’t eat properly for a few days. On the bike I still felt a bit weak.”

After the finish, his verdict was mixed. Van Aert said he had a good feeling on the bike, but because of a puncture he didn’t really get to test how good the legs truly were. “I would have liked to race the finale, to see how far I could have gone in the sprint,” he explained. And he added: “This isn’t the build-up I had in mind towards Strade Bianche, but we’ll make the best of it and I still hope to perform.”

“It was the right choice to start here — it’s another step forward for me,” Van Aert concluded after Le Samyn. On Wednesday, he heads to Tuscany, where he plans to recon Strade Bianche several times. There was also good news from sports director Grischa Niermann regarding the ankle: “That’s not an issue anymore. He can do all efforts again — otherwise Wout wouldn’t be racing.”

But Niermann could not (yet) give a definitive answer when asked how realistic it is that Van Aert will be flying on Saturday. “We’ll see that on Saturday. The peak we’re aiming for with Wout comes later,” the German explained. “But Strade Bianche is a beautiful race that Wout really loves. He really wants to be good there, but we have to wait and see just how good that will be.”

Van Aert’s illness came after what had been an excellent altitude camp in Sierra Nevada. Could Tuscany already bring a burst of ‘super-compensation’? Niermann was cautious. “Wout was good at altitude — everything went the way we wanted,” he said. “But even then you can’t really draw conclusions for the races. The shape is fine, but a good altitude camp doesn’t mean you drop Tadej Pogačar in Strade Bianche.”

Bram van der Ploeg ( X: @BvdPloegg | email : [email protected])