{"id":6294,"date":"2024-03-06T10:01:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T09:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=6294"},"modified":"2024-03-06T10:01:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T09:01:15","slug":"wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert on winning Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne: \u201cI was very confident to round it off\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"-wm-MsoNormal\"><strong>In an impressive display of power and strategy, Wout van Aert, clinched a commanding victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. Van Aert&#8217;s triumph followed a strategic race plan that saw the peloton initially holding back, only to be dynamically split by the concerted efforts of Team Visma | Lease a Bike, propelling Van Aert alongside his fellow breakaway companions, Tim Wellens and Oier Lazkano, towards the forefront of the race.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"-wm-MsoNormal\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"-wm-MsoNormal\">Van Aert&#8217;s tactical acumen shone brightly as he stated, &#8220;The logical tactic for us was to make the race as hard as possible. &#8220;The pace we maintained was super high. It was a matter of time for the bunch to break into several pieces.&#8221; This strategy paid dividends during the ascent of Mont Saint-Laurent, where Van Aert&#8217;s acceleration was matched only by Wellens and Lazkano, setting the stage for a thrilling finale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"-wm-MsoNormal\">Despite the challenging conditions and the high stakes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/11\/17\/van-aert-confirms-giro-ditalia-focus-for-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Van Aert<\/a> remained focused, leveraging the tailwind in the final stretch to his advantage. &#8220;The tailwind in the final gave us an advantage in order to make it to the finish. I stayed focused to counter possible attacks, but I was very confident to round it off,&#8221; Van Aert reflected on his strategic play in the closing kilometers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-controller-wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Winners juniors : Aldo Taillieu<br \/>Winners Elite: Wout van Aert<\/p>\n<p>What a day\ud83d\ude0d\ud83e\udecf\ud83c\udfc6 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hYu90FvDuN\">pic.twitter.com\/hYu90FvDuN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; KuurneBrusselKuurne (@KuurneBxlKuurne) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KuurneBxlKuurne\/status\/1761838717549846537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async data-src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p class=\"-wm-MsoNormal\">The race&#8217;s climax saw Van Aert outpacing Wellens in a gripping sprint finish, with Lazkano&#8217;s late attack providing an unintentional lead-out for the Belgian powerhouse. Van Aert&#8217;s victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne not only underscored his exceptional form but also highlighted Team Visma | Lease a Bike&#8217;s dominant performance over the opening weekend, with sports director Grischa Niermann expressing immense satisfaction, &#8220;We can look back on this weekend hugely satisfied&#8230;For the second year in a row, we managed to win both classics in the opening weekend, which is special. We form a tight group that would do anything for each other. We are going into another altitude camp now with a good feeling.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"-wm-MsoNormal\">Van Aert&#8217;s win at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kuurne-brussel-kuurne.be\/\">Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne,<\/a> coupled with Jan Tratnik&#8217;s victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, underscored Visma | Lease a Bike&#8217;s strategic mastery and collective strength, setting an exhilarating tone for the Classics season ahead. Van Aert, reveling in the success, shared, &#8220;I\u2019m really happy with this win and with the performance of this weekend&#8230;This was my first attempt at Kuurne and my first win,\u201d showcasing his ambition and setting a high bar for the forthcoming races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an impressive display of power and strategy, Wout van Aert, clinched a commanding victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. Van Aert&#8217;s triumph [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":6320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-6294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wout van Aert on winning Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wout van Aert on winning Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne: \u201cI was very confident to round it off\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an impressive display of power and strategy, Wout van Aert, clinched a commanding victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. Van Aert&#8217;s triumph [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-06T09:01:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/03\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0850647785-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"evelynfindlay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Monica Buck\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/\",\"name\":\"Wout van Aert on winning Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/03\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0850647785-CVR.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-06T09:01:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/0fb8f5556d93cedeab625dee98f6bf84\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/03\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0850647785-CVR.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/03\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0850647785-CVR.webp\",\"width\":990,\"height\":660,\"caption\":\"Wout van Aert\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda WeLoveCycling - United Kingdom\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/0fb8f5556d93cedeab625dee98f6bf84\",\"name\":\"evelynfindlay\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ca0246e815ce39c3171ab03d96ff7a0617b252ab40d91e1c1e799819dc92fcf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ca0246e815ce39c3171ab03d96ff7a0617b252ab40d91e1c1e799819dc92fcf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"evelynfindlay\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/author\/evelynfindlay\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wout van Aert on winning Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wout van Aert on winning Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne: \u201cI was very confident to round it off\u201d","og_description":"In an impressive display of power and strategy, Wout van Aert, clinched a commanding victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. Van Aert&#8217;s triumph [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom","article_published_time":"2024-03-06T09:01:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":990,"height":660,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/03\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0850647785-CVR.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"evelynfindlay","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Monica Buck","Est. reading time":"2"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/","name":"Wout van Aert on winning Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/03\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0850647785-CVR.webp","datePublished":"2024-03-06T09:01:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/0fb8f5556d93cedeab625dee98f6bf84"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2024\/03\/06\/wout-van-aert-on-winning-kuurne-brussel-kuurne-i-was-very-confident-to-round-it-off\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/03\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0850647785-CVR.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2024\/03\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0850647785-CVR.webp","width":990,"height":660,"caption":"Wout van Aert"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom","description":"\u0160koda WeLoveCycling - United Kingdom","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/0fb8f5556d93cedeab625dee98f6bf84","name":"evelynfindlay","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ca0246e815ce39c3171ab03d96ff7a0617b252ab40d91e1c1e799819dc92fcf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ca0246e815ce39c3171ab03d96ff7a0617b252ab40d91e1c1e799819dc92fcf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"evelynfindlay"},"url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/author\/evelynfindlay\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6356,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294\/revisions\/6356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6294"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=6294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}