Van Aert Makes Winning Return to Racing a Month After Roubaix

Four weeks after he won on the dust and cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, Wout van Aert returned to racing and was victorious again in somewhat similar conditions.

The Belgian star put in a storming 22km solo to win the Marly Grav gravel race in the Netherlands, part of the UCI’s World Gravel series.

He used the same skills that stood to him in Roubaix, blending raw power with superb bike handling skills in the 150km race. There was another similarity, of sorts: he was up against a UAE Emirates-XRG rider sporting a rainbow jersey, although in this case it was world gravel champ Florian Vermeersch rather than Tadej Pogačar.

Van Aert is, of course, a multiple world cyclocross champion, which also came in useful.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider kicked clear to drop Vermeersch, Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Premier Tech Development Team), Jonathan Vervenne (Soudal Quick-Step) and Rick Ottema (EEW-VDK Cyclingteam).

“It was a really tough race, but at the same time I enjoyed it,” he said.

“My main goal today was to stay out of trouble. I tried to stay near the front the whole time to avoid risks as much as possible. When there were eventually six of us left, it became a lot easier, because we no longer had to fight for our positions.

“I felt I still had something left in the tank and tried to accelerate on one of the tougher sections. That was a good moment.”

Once clear Van Aert fended off the efforts of those behind to haul him back, driving hard over the remaining distance to the finish. He ended up 44 seconds clear of Vandeputte and a further second ahead of Ottema and Vermeersch. Over 100 riders took part.

World champion Wiebes wins

Despite his cross background, Van Aert has little history of gravel racing. He did some events in 2023, winning the Houffa Gravel race in Belgium, another UCI Gravel World Series race. He also rode the Gravel World Championships, although he had to be happy with eighth place.

The welcome news for racing fans is that he will be back for more in future events.

“It was fun racing here. It’s a completely different kind of race to what I’m used to,” he said. “It’s great to be able to compete in such a fair race and put my off-road skills to good use.

“I’ll definitely be taking part more often.”

Also competing Sunday was SD Worx-Protime rider Lorena Wiebes, who won the women’s race in a sprint ahead of Larissa Hartog (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing), Ilse Pluimers (AG Insurance – Soudal Team) and two others.

She’s the reigning women’s world champion in the discipline and was also making a return to racing following a break from competition.

Marly Grav Race Results, Netherlands: