Strava shows: Wout van Aert seems to be doing things a little differently toward cross and the road

Those who want to be good in the spring lay the groundwork during the winter. There is always little time for the beach or a nice party, because the WorldTour pros quickly get back on their bikes to grow legs for a new season. It was no different for Wout van Aert, but what can we make of the figures and choices the Belgian from Visma | Lease a Bike has so far presented?

Van Aert has been sharing his workouts on Strava for years, as many other top riders in the peloton keep their activities during the winter period a secret. Now, Van Aert doesn't show the back of his tongue either, due to the lack of heart rate and power data, but based on past years, we can of course see what he has been up to as.

In recent years Van Aert's winter was occasionally turned upside down by physical discomfort, but apart from a bout of flu in early December, the Belgian seemingly encountered little. He rode his last race in 2025 as early as Sept. 20 in the Super 8 Classic (18th), which also gave him plenty of time to slow down and then accelerate. Right?

To get a bit of an idea of an average Van Aert winter, we put the years 2021 through 2025 together. This shows that October is traditionally the superstar's rest month. Often, the season was already over by the end of September or early October, so he always had time for that as well. Paris-Roubaix on October 3, 2021 and the World Gravel Championship on October 8, 2023 were in this "late.

Mileage often stayed below 1,000 in October. Only in 2023 and 2024 did Van Aert record more training kilometers. In 2023, that wasn't so crazy, since he got a late start during that season and had still become a father in the summer. Some extra labor was not a crazy thought. In 2024, October was the starting month of his recovery on the bike, after a heavy crash in the Vuelta.

In October of 2025, Van Aert was on the bike for 26 hours and 49 minutes, accounting for 810.3 kilometers and 2,160 altimeters. It wasn't until October 21 that he was on the bike for the first time, which amounts to a full month off. So he had to completely reset, and then build up from scratch.'Cramped,' Van Aert wrote tellingly about his first ride after a month off.

After such a long period off, you'd think Van Aert would hit the gas pedal in November. In fact, he invariably did so in recent years, whether top fit after a good season or physically battered by injury. 2,747.1 kilometers in 2021 and 2,874.5 kilometers in 2022 stood out. In 2023 Van Aert recorded 2,168.9 kilometers and in 2024 (after his Vuelta crash, that is) 2,356.1 kilometers.

The counter stuck at 2,020.3 kilometers this November. Nor did the 5,492 altimeters come close to his numbers in previous years. In 2024, he even went on a training camp as early as November to get the knee running again. In 2025, a commercial trip to America was on the cards for Van Aert, who visited sponsors in California on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike.

Comparing December to previous years is complicated because we are still in the last month of the year. Over the past four years, the workload was pretty much the same, despite the fact that each time he started the cross season at a different time. In 2021 and 2022 he started as early as the first weekend in December, in 2023 a week later. In 2024, the knee injury caused an entry on Dec. 27.

It made little difference to the workouts Van Aert put in around it. In 2021, he recorded 2,230.1 kilometers, but in the December months of 2022, 2023 and 2024, that number was much higher with 2,874.5, 2,787.0 and 2,649.8 kilometers. Through Wednesday, Dec. 17, Van Aert covered 1,555.0 kilometers. This means he is heading for a considerably lower total in December as well.

Indeed, from December 20, a lot of crosses will follow. That starts in Antwerp and goes via Hofstade (22), Heusden-Zolder (23), Dendermonde (28), Loenhout (29), Mol (Jan. 2) and Zonhoven (Jan. 4) to the BK on Jan. 11 in Beringen. Van Aert is thus free with Christmas and New Year's, perhaps moments for some long training sessions.

In short: a long vacation, a (purely numerically) less intensive November and the December month that also does not yet indicate a huge workload, even though Van Aert did already go to Spain for a week with Visma | Lease a Bike and was thus sick for a while. What are we to make of all that? The fact is that Van Aert came out of the road season top fit and clearly has a plan.

Now that he is skipping the cyclocross World Championships, Visma | Lease a Bike and Van Aert are at least clearing space with his cross calendar to catch up in January, if necessary. In photos, he already looks sharp, and past experience has always shown that if Van Aert finishes a season without injury and with good legs, he'll be on target next spring. That promises, but first cyclocross!

2021
October: 702.3 kilometers, 29 hours and 27 minutes, 3,270 altimeters
November: 2,747.1 kilometers, 91 hours and 31 minutes, 9,523 altimeters
December: 2,230.1 kilometers, 76 hours and 41 minutes, 21,651 altimeters

2022
October: 853.3 kilometers, 34 hours and 28 minutes, 1,527 altimeters
November: 2,874.5 kilometers, 96 hours and 23 minutes, 8,994 altimeters
December: 2,698.1 kilometers, 90 hours and 58 minutes, 24,553 altimeters

2023
October: 1,216.0 kilometers, 37 hours and 10 minutes, 10,142 altimeters
November: 2,168.9 kilometers, 70 hours and 59 minutes, 11,478 altimeters
December: 2,787.0 kilometers, 90 hours and 49 minutes, 21,916 altimeters

2024
October: 1,330.3 kilometers, 44 hours and 53 minutes, 3,106 altimeters
November: 2,356.1 kilometers, 78 hours and 8 minutes, 24,694 altimeters
December: 2,649.8 kilometers, 88 hours and 59 minutes, 18,698 altimeters

2025
October: 810.3 kilometers, 26 hours and 49 minutes, 2,160 altimeters
November: 2,020.3 kilometers, 68 hours and 11 minutes, 5,492 altimeters
December: 1,555.0 kilometers, 50 hours and 16 minutes, 14,697 altimeters

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