Van Aert goes from quiz show to cobbles as Paris-Roubaix build-up begins

Wout van Aert has yet to signal when he will start his cyclocross campaign this winter, but his preparations for the cobbled Classics are already under way. Het Laatste Nieuws reports that the Belgian was spotted testing equipment on the Carrefour de l’Arbre on Tuesday in the company of three Visma | Lease a Bike teammates.

The test is something of a winter ritual at Visma, and Van Aert and company usually take in a selection of climbs from the Tour of Flanders as part of their exercise. This time out, they limited themselves to the finale of Paris-Roubaix, with Van Aert, Christophe Laporte and new arrivals Timo Kielich and Aldo Taillieu riding several times over the Carrefour de l’Arbre.

That cobbled section conjures painful memories for Van Aert, who suffered a costly puncture there during his joust with Mathieu van der Poel at the 2023 Paris-Roubaix.

On a grey, drizzly and cold morning in northern France, Van Aert and his teammates tested the squad’s cobbled Classics set-up, including the GRAAVA adjustable tyre pressure system. According to Het Laatste Nieuws, Van Aert, Laporte, Kielich and Taillieu were accompanied on the excursion by head of equipment Jenco Drost and sports director Jan Boven.

The entire Visma squad is due to assemble for a series of meetings in the Netherlands later this week, while their first collective training camp of the winter is in Oliva, Spain, from December 8-16. 

The team’s media day, which should bring confirmation of Van Aert’s road schedule for 2026, is scheduled to take place near Benidorm on January 13.

By that point, Van Aert is expected to have begun his cyclocross campaign, though the Belgian has not yet confirmed when he will enter the fray this winter. Het Laatste Nieuws reports that his cyclocross debut is expected to come shortly after the Oliva training camp, either at Antwerp (December 20), Koksijde (December 21) or Hofstade (December 22).

Earlier this week, meanwhile, Van Aert continued his foray into the world of light entertainment. After participating in the Masked Singer last year, he was a guest on quiz show De Slimste Mens ter Wereld (‘The Smartest Man in the World’), broadcast on Monday night. 

“Every year we look to see if we can do something other than cycling-related matters, which are still our daily bread,” Van Aert’s manager Jef Van den Bosch told Sporza.

“It’s not that we consciously seek out those excursions ourselves. It just depends on the timing. We had been asked to come on this programme for several years and had never acted on it, but now it was possible.”

The only confirmed fixtures in Van Aert’s 2026 programme, meanwhile, are the first two Sundays in April, where he chases those elusive victories at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.