Wout van Aert looks back on week he’ll never forget after Paris-Roubaix win

The Belgian rider was in Mechelen on Tuesday for a sponsor event with Team Visma | Lease a Bike, where a tribute to his win was unveiled. There, Van Aert reflected on how he experienced the immediate aftermath of his biggest one day success.

Rather than staying in Belgium to take in the celebrations, he left almost straight away for a family holiday in Marbella with his wife and their children.

“The trip had already been planned,” he said to Het Laatste Nieuws. “But having Roubaix in the bag made it even better.”

Away from the attention at home, the family found their own way to celebrate. Van Aert joked that his cobblestone trophy became part of a recurring family ritual. “We kept raising a toast with it,” he said. “It turned into a bit of a running joke with the kids.”

Being abroad also meant he missed much of the initial reaction in Belgium. Only after returning did the scale of it really sink in.

“You start to realise how big it was here,” he said. “Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing to step away from that for a bit and just focus on family. It was quite emotional, but in a good way.”

Van Aert added that, despite the physical effort of Roubaix, he felt anything but exhausted in the days after. “I actually felt full of energy. It gave me time to really enjoy what had happened.”

During the event in Mechelen, he also handed over a framed race jersey as a gift to the city. It was not, however, the kit from Paris–Roubaix. “That one stays with me,” Van Aert said with a smile. “It’s already hanging at home.”

Earlier, at another sponsor event, Van Aert had revealed his doubts in the build up to Paris-Roubaix, as his legs did not respond as he had hoped. “I was exhausted after the recon on Thursday. I didn’t feel good,” he said. “As a rider, you want to feel good every day. It was a strange build up.”

By the eve of the race, that feeling had shifted. “On Saturday, I felt hungry again.”

After the necessary celebrations and media commitments, van Aert will shift his focus to altitude training camps as he builds toward his next major goal of the season, the Tour de France.

During La Grande Boucle, he will balance personal ambitions with a key supporting role for Jonas Vingegaard in the team’s effort to challenge the dominance of Tadej Pogačar. Following the Tour, Van Aert is also set to line up for a second time at the Vuelta a España.