Wout van Aert

Van Aert came through cyclo-cross in the Antwerp province, winning the elite world title three years running from 2016 to 2018 while riding for small Belgian teams. His racing against Mathieu van der Poel started in the junior ranks and carried onto the road. He left Veranda's Willems-Crelan a year early in September 2018 to join Jumbo-Visma, and a Belgian court later ruled the move a breach of contract and ordered him to pay his former manager compensation.

A stage win on his Tour de France debut in 2019 was followed four days later by a crash in the Pau time trial that opened a deep cut in his leg and which he described as career-threatening. He came back to win Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche in 2020, Gent-Wevelgem and the Amstel Gold Race in 2021, and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, E3 and Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2022.

The 2022 Tour gave him three stage wins and the green jersey, along with stretches of work for Jonas Vingegaard that had him towing the bunch up climbs he had no intention of contesting. He rode that same role through Vingegaard's two titles and again in 2025. Flanders and Paris-Roubaix were the races he named as his goals, and through 2025 San Remo remained his only Monument.

Two seasons were broken up by crashes. At Dwars door Vlaanderen in March 2024 he broke his collarbone, sternum and ribs, missing Flanders, Roubaix and the Giro. At the Vuelta that August he won three stages and led the points classification before going down on a wet descent and abandoning. The 2025 spring brought fourth places at Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race, and no win.

Both his 2025 victories came at grand tours. The Giro's gravel stage into Siena, where he outsprinted Isaac del Toro in the Piazza del Campo, completed stage wins in all three grand tours. In July he attacked on the last climb of Montmartre and rode in alone on the Champs-Élysées for a Tour de France stage win.