Wout van Aert visits Ruben Van Gucht and follows trend started by Jonas Vingegaard

Wout van Aert has hit his stride again following the setback he suffered in June, which forced him to miss the Tour de France. The Belgian Visma | Lease a Bike rider dominated the Tour of Denmark and is now preparing for the Vuelta a España. On Friday, he completed a demanding training ride alongside former professional Jan Bakelants.

Van Aert titled his Strava activity ‘Congé Payé Breakdown’, a reference to the VTM programme Bakelants made together with Ruben Van Gucht and others during the Tour de France. That was no coincidence: during their training ride, Van Aert and Bakelants stopped by to visit Van Gucht for their own version of the ‘breakdown’.

As well as enjoying the proverbial coffee at Van Gucht’s place, Bakelants also had some fun with Van Aert’s unusually short cycling socks. In doing so, the Belgian followed a trend previously seen with Jonas Vingegaard and Victor Campenaerts. Vingegaard was spotted several times around Annecy wearing short socks, while Campenaerts also raced one stage of the Tour de France with a similarly low-cut pair.

“A yellow card from the fashion police,” Van Aert joked in the comments himself. The Belgian will return to competition this Sunday at the Belgian Gravel Championships before travelling to Monaco for the start of the Vuelta a España, the final Grand Tour of the 2026 season and one of Van Aert’s major objectives for the second half of the year.

In the first week of that major stage race, Van Aert should immediately have several opportunities to fight for stage success. After the Vuelta, his programme will also take him to Canada, where he is scheduled to compete in the road race at the World Championships in Montreal.