Wout van Aert: Opening Weekend team is massively strong if everyone is on their normal level

Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) is still several weeks away from his top form but heading into Opening Weekend believes that his team are ‘massively strong’ if everyone is on their best level.

GCN can also confirm that Tiesj Benoot is on course to start Omloop Het Nieuwsblad after crashing out of the Volta ao Algarve last week. Van Aert is racing a full calendar of cobbled Classics, starting with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne this weekend.

“I think that the form is good. It’s a different approach than usual and without altitude but more racing. I hope to improve for next weekend’s racing and I’ve really enjoyed it here. I’m six weeks from my peak form,” Van Aert told GCN and other members of the press on the final day of racing in Portugal.

Read more: Preview: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2024

The Belgian came away from his first road stage race of the season with a stage win and two notable performances on the hilly stages. His individual time trial on stage was respectable but not at the level he had initially hoped for with 11th place behind stage and overall winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).

“It was good but it wasn’t as good as I had hoped, maybe. I suffered a lot on the TT bike and it was definitely a good reminder that training on the bike is important. I knew that before but I got the message the hard way. We’ll do that in the next weeks.”

Visma-Lease a Bike head into Opening Weekend as the team to beat with Van Aert, Benoot, Jan Tratnik, Christophe Laporte, and last year’s Omloop winner, Dylan van Baarle, all part of the squad.

“It’s massively strong if everyone is on their normal level,” Van Aert said when asked about the depth within his team.

“I heard that the guys training in Tenerife are doing really well, so we’ll have a super strong team for Opening Weekend. I hope that Benoot will have recovered and I’m confident that he’ll be strong in the Spring as well.”

While most of the attention at Opening Weekend will be focused on Van Aert, Laporte and van Baarle, the team can also rely on Tratnik, who in a contract year has started the season in impressive form. The Slovenian finished third overall in Algarve to secure his third podium of the season.

“I’ll go to Opening Weekend next,” he said at the final stage in Algarve. “I must be happy and excited. With this condition and results, I’m not afraid of anybody.”

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