VAN AERT. A major player at the start of the Tour de France 2022, the Belgian Wout van Aert has already been pinned down several times by the marshals.
Undoubtedly, he is one of the actors of this start of the Tour de France 2022. Three times second and winner of two stages out of the 9 already passed, Wout van Aert splashes the roads of the Tour de France with his talent and his ease on n it doesn’t matter which profile. But is the Belgian a bad student in the peloton?
The answer is yes since the rider of the Jumbo Visma is under the threat of a time penalty imposed by the marshals of the Tour de France for a breach of the regulations. On the occasion of the inaugural weekend in Denmark, the Belgian had thrown his waste outside the collection area provided for this purpose, which earned him a call to order, a warning, a fine of 500 Swiss francs and a penalty of 25 UCI points. At the start of the 7th stage, Wout van Aert was once again visited by the marshals since the latter would have noticed a new breach of the rules on the part of the Belgian who would still have got rid of cans illegally. The Jumbo rider got away with a simple verbal warning and fortunately because as a reminder, a second warning is synonymous with a one-minute penalty in the general classification, a third and that is exclusion from the Tour de France.
Biography Wout Van Aert. Wout Van Aert was born on September 15, 1994 in Herentals, Belgium. Before becoming one of the best road racers, he distinguished himself mainly in cyclo-cross until 2019 when he joined the Jumbo-Visma team. Today, Wout Van Aert is one of the most formidable riders in the peloton where his versatility is feared by many riders: the Belgian is able to win sprints and mix in the race for the points classification while winning classics like the Amstel Gold Race or Ghent-Wevelgem.
In his career, Wout Van Aert has already beaten the best riders in the peloton like Julian Alaphilippe, Tom Dumoulin, Caleb Ewan, Peter Sagan. Often compared to Tom Boonen, Wout Van Aert will surely never equal his compatriot in the number of successes but he has already done as well as “Tornado Tom”.
Triple cyclo-cross world champion, five-time Belgian cyclo-cross champion, three-time winner of the general classification of the cyclo-cross World Cup, Wout Van Aert’s record is already full. Without forgetting his victories in road cycling: the Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo in 2020, Belgian road champion, Ghent-Wevelgem, Amstel Gold Race, silver medal in the road race of the Olympic Games, silver medal of the World Time Trial Championship (behind the Italian Filippo Ganna) in 2021.
Between 2015 and 2020, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel shared the world titles in cyclo-cross before facing each other on the road. Some compare this rivalry with others like Tom Boonen – Fabian Cancellara.
Since the start of his professional career in 2012, Wout Van Aert has known six teams so far: Telenet-Fidea (2012-03.2014), Vastgoedservice – Golden Palace (03.2014 – 2015), Crelan-Vastgoedservice (2016), Verandas Willems -Crelan (01.2017-09.2018), Cibel-Cebon (10.2018-02.2019) and Jumbo Visma since March 2019 where the Dutchman extended until 2024.
On the private side, Wout Van Aert has been married since 2018 to Sarah De Bie. Together, they became parents of Georges on January 4, 2021.
