Wout van Aert sets his sights on Olympic glory with time trial ambition: "I've never entered a race this prepared"

In December, Van Aert made no secret of his plans to first focus on the traditional classics in the spring. His next goal is his debut in the Giro d'Italia, as a stage hunter and lead-out for Olav Kooij. However, what he also shared in December was his desire to return to time trialing. In the 2022 Tour de France, he won a time trial, as he did in that year's Paris-Nice. In 2023, he became the Belgian time trial champion, but he was far from victory in other time trials.

This needs to change in 2024, his coach Mathieu Heijboer tells IDLProCycling.com. "We're not going to do anything drastically different, but we do have quite a few upgrades to the equipment. And we're also getting a new upgrade on the P5, the time trial bike. Each year, we develop in this area and Wout has the Olympics as one of his main goals. Time trialing is going to play a very important role for him, and we're starting with that in the winter."

There's no worry, only ambition. Van Aert's decision to opt for the Giro in an Olympic year aligns perfectly with his time trial goals. "Because of the Olympic Games, I wanted to take a different approach. The Olympic time trial is on the Saturday following the Tour de France, so I don't think the riders who compete in the Tour can showcase their maximum capabilities in that time trial. A training camp leading up to the time trial is a much better preparation," the Visma superstar tells this website.

When asked which medal he would prefer to win in Paris: the road race or the time trial? He gives a candid response, "I'll be doing the time trial, so according to Olympic rules, I'll also automatically participate in the road race. I have a chance at a medal in both disciplines, but I've already won a medal in the road race (silver in Tokyo 2021, ed.), so it would be special to do the same in the time trial. That's not something that happens very often."

The focused preparation on time trialing gives Van Aert the confidence that he can once again compete with the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna, and Joshua Tarling. "In the championships, I often face men in the time trial who have prepared one hundred percent, and I often came from a different race and did the best I could. I've never raced such a race with thorough preparation, so without the Tour, I have time to prepare one hundred percent for the time trial. I'm looking forward to that."