In his first cyclocross race of the season,a completely mud-soaked Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) took the win in Essen over the weekend. In a time of 1:36, the Belgian finished ahead of Jens Adams. The podium was rounded out with Thijs Aerts (Circus-Reuz-Technord)
The riders were given a full day of what can only be described as cyclocross weather. Wet, muddy, challenging conditions. Van Aert stayed close to the leaders for several laps and then increased the pace at the halfway point. He quickly took a solid lead heading to his fifth professional win in Essen.
Team Jumbo-Visma reported that van Aert said, “I needed the first few laps to assess my form and assess the competition. Every lap, the conditions got harder and harder, and halfway through the race, I noticed I was the best in the running sectors. Then, I found my rhythm, which allowed me to build up a lead. I struggled a bit at the end, but that is not unusual on a course like this. It's always good to start here. I am happy that I was able to please the crowd.
“The feeling today was better than I had hoped,” he continued. “It was difficult to predict how I would do here. This winter, I am deliberately taking a calmer approach than in previous years. It’s good not to put too much pressure on myself during the winter. Above all, I want to have fun, and that was the case today.”
Van Aert will head to Spain this week for a training camp with Team Jumbo-Visma. He will then return to cyclocross racing on December 22 in Mol. And while he looks forward to having some serious battles in the mud this season, his eyes are firmly on the road season coming up.
No-Go for Wout at World Championships
According to Cycling News, Wout definitively opted out of racing at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships and the Belgian Championships before his season debut in Essen.
“It is with a heavy heart, but it is a conscious choice to quickly make the transition to the road season and experience a quiet winter,” van Aert said in the pre-race interview.
“If the Belgian championships had been held closer to the Christmas period, I would have liked to participate, but now it does not work. The World Championships are again at the beginning of February. I have already done the Worlds-Spring [Classics] combination, but now I choose something else.”
Even though van Aert can do it all, he’s playing it smart by not trying to literally be at every race. “It matters a lot to me to make these efforts in the winter, splitting up the long build-up for the road,” he told sporza.be.
