Wout van Aert will join WorldTour team Jumbo-Visma in March
After a contentious contract dispute, the three-time cyclocross world champion will move into the WorldTour ranks for the 2019 Spring Classics
Wout van Aert will make the move to a UCI WorldTour cycling team a year earlier than originally planned. The world cyclocross champion will join Jumbo-Visma on March 1, 2019, the day before the Spring Classics get underway with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Van Aert’s future was uncertain after he broke his contract with Veranda’s Willems-Crelan because of the team’s merger with Dutch team Roompot-Charles.
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The three-time cyclocross champion had already been in contract negotiations with Jumbo-Visma for 2020 but with the contract dispute with his former team resolved, van Aert is now cleared to join the team early.
Van Aert’s 2018 spring campaign raised eyebrows as he rode to third at Strade Bianche and followed that up with 10th at Gent-Wevelgem, ninth at de Ronde van Vlaanderen and 13th at Paris-Roubaix. Van Aert’s only road victory in 2018 came at the Tour of Denmark where he won the second stage and the overall.
“I think I achieved great results last year and that’s why I had the opportunity to talk with different teams”, van Aert said.
“At one point, Team Jumbo-Visma knocked on my door, a team that really appealed to me. Due to circumstances I will be able to move up the ranks in 2019 already. It feels good that I can step up to the WorldTour, because I think I can develop myself a lot at that level,” he said.
Van Aert is currently racing the cyclocross season where he has been overshadowed by his main rival Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman will also be a rival on the road as he is scheduled to race his first spring campaign with Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars Door Vlaanderen, de Ronde van Vlaanderen and Brabantse Pijl on his schedule for 2019. Cycling fans have been salivating at the prospect of the two young stars of cyclocross moving to the road. While van Aert looks poised to tackle a full road schedule in the near future, van der Poel hasn’t made commitments beyond the 2020 Tokyo where he plans to race the XC mountain bike race.
“Things have all gone faster than planned and we can welcome him to our team earlier. That’s very good news for the team, because we’re getting stronger. He’s a very big talent and we hope to be able to develop him into the classic rider we all see in him,” explained Jumbo-Visma general manager Richard Plugge.
Van Aert’s contract with Jumbo-Visma will run until the end of 2021.
