“Won’t start”

Wout van Aert celebrated a successful return to the peloton last week. He may not have won a stage in the Tour of Norway, but the Kempen native said he had a good feeling about it. What happens next remains to be seen.

No theft arrow

Although one decision has already been made. For example, Van Aert will not be at the start of next Saturday’s Heiste Pijl, a level 1.1 competition “only”, but it will be in Van Aert’s territory and organized by Heylen Vastgoed, where he is one of the co-contributors. All this did not tempt him to participate.

“The answer to this is no. Although I understand that I have received a lot of questions about this in recent days. Wout’s association with Heylen Vastgoed and the fact that the race is being held in his familiar environment,” said Heiste Pijl director and organizer Jef Van den Bosch to Het Nieuwsblad. .

“I do not deny that this has been discussed from time to time. But we must frankly dare to say that Foote’s goals in competitions are higher than ours,” says Van den Bosch.

Focus elsewhere

Of course, in normal circumstances, this match would not have been on Van Aert’s schedule, but given his recovery period, this could have been the case. Just as happened with Norway. “His participation in the Tour of Norway was mainly to find out where he was. And because Foote really wanted to race.

“In retrospect we can say that it was not clear at the beginning of that stage of the race. But he came out of it with the necessary confidence. The focus and planning can now be further adjusted to suit his further goals. But as mentioned, Heist-op-den-Berg is not Among them so we will have to wait and see when we will see Van Aert back in action.