Like van Aert, van der Poel will spend the first part of his season focusing on the spring Classics, and then should head to the Tour de France (but only, he says, for the sake of his sponsors). That was all he needed to declare his season a success as he helped his team earn an automatic invitation to all of 2021’s World Tour events-including all three Grand Tours-by virtue of winning the season’s “Professional Continental” (basically, cycling’s Division 1-AA) classification. His road season last year was rather quiet-until he defeated van Aert to win the Tour of Flanders. Like Pogačar, van der Poel looks as if he could win any race he sets his mind to. Looking ahead, van Aert’s building his 2021 season around three main goals: the spring Classics (watch for Paris-Roubaix), the Olympic individual time trial (scheduled right after the Tour de France), and the World Championships, which are take place on van Aert’s home turf: Flanders. The latter was most likely his most gut-wrenching defeat: Flanders is the most important race of the year for Belgian fans, and to add insult to injury, van Aert lost to Mathieu van der Poel, a fierce rival, and even worse, a Dutchman. And 2020 was the Belgian’s best season yet thanks to wins in Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo, along with two stage wins at the Tour de France.īut like Roglič, van Aert’s 2020 season was defined by a few missed chances as well, including second-place finishes in the world championship time trial and road race and the Tour of Flanders. Since devoting himself to road racing after several years racing cyclocross full time, van Aert has steadily become one of the strongest riders in the sport, someone capable of winning Monuments, time trials, and pacing his team’s GC leaders through the high mountains of the Tour de France.
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