Wout van Aert urges change to cycling's 'fragile' economic model

In an interview with De Tijd, Van Aert cited the scramble for contracts amid the merger of Intermarché and Lotto, and he supported the idea of cycling mimicking some elements of the economic models of other sports.

“In the past I didn’t concern myself with it at all, but by being in cycling longer I worry more and more about how fragile our format is,” Van Aert told De Tijd. “This year two WorldTour teams are merging and this winter it’s really a battlefield of people losing their jobs, riders and staff.

“I think that fragility would be much less if, alongside sponsor income, there were also revenues coming from the sport itself. From TV rights, for example, so that losing one sponsor doesn’t immediately have to mean it’s over for a team. Right now, you’re immediately sitting there with a knife to your throat.”

While many race organisers, notably ASO and Flanders Classics, already benefit from charging for entry to VIP areas at certain events, figures including Jerome Pineau and Filippo Pozzato have recently floated the idea of extending the concept more widely to a general admission fee for spectators on climbs or circuits. 

“There should be a much healthier foundation in cycling. I should maybe be careful with the terrain I’m entering now,” Van Aert said. “But in cycling we may be a bit too focused on the charm and the folksiness. If you ask €5 entrance money, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer a people’s sport. Cyclocross also charges admission, and nothing is more ‘of the people’ than that. We should dare to rethink things like that.”

Whatever about the specifics of how cycling generates more revenue, Van Aert was adamant that the teams and riders deserved to benefit as much as the organisers of the major races.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but a major race like the Tour of Flanders or the Tour de France stands or falls with us, the riders and teams who come to compete,” he said. “But as a team we don’t even get compensation that is enough to cover the costs of participating. That seems to me the bare minimum. The pie can be divided more fairly.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Van Aert also looked ahead to his 2026 season. The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix will once again be the major targets of his Spring, but the Belgian acknowledged that Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel are operating on another level to him these days. 

“A few years ago I wouldn’t have thought I needed luck to win them, but I can now honestly admit that Pogačar and Mathieu are a step above me,” he said. “Not that I give in. But if I win Flanders or Roubaix, it’ll likely be because the race situation suits me, because I race smart, because I have a strong team, or other factors. Athletes must be ambitious, but you can’t ride around blindly. That doesn’t help.”