{"id":191771,"date":"2023-01-16T15:11:11","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T15:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=191771"},"modified":"2023-01-16T15:11:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T15:11:11","slug":"van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wout van Aert is arguably the best cyclist in the world, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone who has never won a Grand Tour and probably never will. But that\u2019s not because the 28-year-old Belgian Jumbo-Visma rider couldn\u2019t win a Giro or the Tour de France if he targeted those races. It is because, as he has often said, he also wants to ride on the cyclo-cross circuit after the road race season is over and would not be able to if he lost enough weight to be competitive in the Grand Tour mountains. This winter, Van Aert is having another impressive cyclo-cross season, winning the three Super-Prestige races he entered, as well as two of four UCI World Cup races he raced in, finishing second in the other two.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Van Aert is coming off another impressive road race season, finishing second in the UCI Men\u2019s World Tour ranking for the year, behind Tadej Poga\u010dar, and second in the voting for the V\u00e9lo d\u2019Or, behind countryman Remco Evenepoel.<\/a> His most impressive performance of 2022 \u2013 and perhaps in his entire career \u2013 came in the Tour de France, in which he helped teammate Jonas Vingegaard outduel two-time Tour winner Poga\u010dar for the yellow jersey while also winning three stages, the overall Combativity Award and, most impressively, the \u0160KODA\u00a0Green Jersey.<\/a> So it\u2019s something of a surprise that he recently declared that the green jersey is not one of his priorities for the 2023 season. \u201cGreen was a great adventure but stage victories are more memorable and the world championship is the higher goal,\u201d Van Aert told\u00a0Sporza<\/u>.<\/a> \u201cThat\u2019s why I don\u2019t want to focus on the green points from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year the UCI Road Race Championships take place in Glasgow starting on August 3, which is only two weeks after the Tour de France ends. It\u2019s easy to understand Van Aert\u2019s desire to win the World Championship. He has taken part in two World Championship time trials (in 2021 and 2022) and one road race (2022), and has finished second every time. So he may wish to dial back his ambitions in the Tour to conserve some energy for the greater dream. Though he has ruled nothing out.<\/p>\n

The green jersey “can become a goal during the Tour,\u201d he said in the Sporza interview, \u201cbut I will choose my days much more and in the final week, you still have many opportunities. You can then make choices and it is much more sensible that way.” But he will surely again be crucial to Vingegaard\u2019s attempt to beat Poga\u010dar and win a second Tour de France.<\/p>\n

\"Wout<\/a>
Van Aert at the 2023 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Belgium. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Van Aert\u2019s other goals this year include making up for other missed opportunities in the past, including the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. He was down with Covid during last year\u2019s Tour of Flanders and finished second (yes, again) in the Paris-Roubaix, which was won by his new Jumbo-Visma teammate Dylan van Baarle. \u201cThese are high, but also logical ambitions,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I am extra motivated after what happened [last year].” But not only last year. In addition to three second-place finishes at the Worlds, Van Aert has only one Monuments win \u2013 in the 2020 Milan-San Remo \u2013 but has finished second in two and third in another two. Podium finishes are real accomplishments but coming close to winning can be frustrating.<\/p>\n

Van Aert will kick off his road-race season relatively late, on March 4, with the Strade Bianche. \u201cThis way, I have a week longer to go on altitude training for Strade,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe past has shown that altitude training is a formula for success.\u201d After that, he will be very busy with the Tirreno-Adriatico, the Milano-San Remo, the 3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem before getting to the heart of the season with the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France. Then come the Glasgow World Championships where he will be racing in both the road race and the ITT.<\/p>\n

His ambitions for the road season have forced him to reluctantly skip the Belgian National Cyclo-Cross Championships, which were held on January 15 and which he had won five times in the last six years.\u00a0“I have to make choices,” he said. \u201cI have to take a period to train well and prepare for the road season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wout van Aert is arguably the best cyclist in the world, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":191772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[3140,2720,583,831],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-191771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-dylan-van-baarle","tag-pro-cycling","tag-road-cycling","tag-wout-van-aert","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nVan Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wout van Aert is arguably the best cyclist in the world, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone who has never won a Grand Tour and probably\" \/>\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\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Van Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wout van Aert is arguably the best cyclist in the world, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone who has never won a Grand Tour and probably\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-16T15:11:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0747510868-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=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/\",\"name\":\"Van Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0747510868-CVR.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-16T15:11:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926\"},\"description\":\"Wout van Aert is arguably the best cyclist in the world, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone who has never won a Grand Tour and probably\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0747510868-CVR.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0747510868-CVR.webp\",\"width\":990,\"height\":660,\"caption\":\"Wout van Aert\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Van Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926\",\"name\":\"tereza\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"tereza\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/tereza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Van Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023","description":"Wout van Aert is arguably the best cyclist in the world, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone who has never won a Grand Tour and probably","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\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Van Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023","og_description":"Wout van Aert is arguably the best cyclist in the world, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone who has never won a Grand Tour and probably","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2023-01-16T15:11:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":990,"height":660,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0747510868-CVR.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"tereza","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Siegfried Mortkowitz","Est. reading time":"5"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/","name":"Van Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0747510868-CVR.webp","datePublished":"2023-01-16T15:11:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926"},"description":"Wout van Aert is arguably the best cyclist in the world, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone who has never won a Grand Tour and probably","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0747510868-CVR.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Wout-van-Aert-profimedia-0747510868-CVR.webp","width":990,"height":660,"caption":"Wout van Aert"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/16\/van-aert-targets-monuments-and-the-world-championships-in-2023\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Van Aert Targets Monuments and the World Championships in 2023"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926","name":"tereza","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"tereza"},"url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/tereza\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191774,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191771\/revisions\/191774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191771"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=191771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}