Wout van Aert looks to be close to signing an extension to his contract with Dutch team, Jumbo-Visma after being one of the most successful riders of the 2020 season.
Van Aert had been linked with British super-team Ineos Grenadiers, but then again, the list of top riders who have been linked with them grows day by the day thanks to their superior financial muscle.
Wielerflits reports that the CEO of Dutch supermarket, Jumbo, Ton van Veen said in a new year meeting: "Wout van Aert is praised by the Belgians. I can reveal that we are in talks with the Jumbo-Visma cycling team to extend his contract.
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"He still has a commitment for this year, but we want to keep him with us for longer. Those negotiations look very good. We will hear that in the coming days and we are very happy with that.
"Van Aert is very important to us for building brand awareness in Belgium. And loading the Jumbo brand in Belgium."
Jumbo is very keen to keep Van Aert as they are looking to open more stores in Belgium and want the nation's current top rider to be the face of its adverts.
Van Aert had an incredible season in 2020, winning stages in the Tour de France as well as showing some amazing climbing ability. Victories at Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche as well second places in both the road race and time trial World Championships and at the Tour of Flanders cemented a monumental year for the 26-year-old.
The superstar rider has looked at changing his style of riding after his impressive climbing performances at the Tour de France. While he wants to aim for all the Classics as well as the green jersey at the Tour, he also wants to target week-long stage races like Tirreno-Adriatico.
Since his exceptional 2020, Van Aert's price tag has jumped up quite considerably meaning that few teams can afford his salary.
Ineos Grenadiers are probably the only team that can comfortably invest in the rider along with UAE Team Emirates, but Jumbo-Visma are trying to tie the Belgian down for 2022.
Tim Bonville-Ginn is one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter.
Bonville-Ginn started working in cycling journalism while still at school and university for a voluntary site based on Twitter before also doing slots for Eurosport's online web team and has been on location at the Tour de Yorkshire, Tour of Britain, UCI World Championships and various track events. He then joined the Cycling Weekly team in late February of 2020.
When not writing stories for the site, Bonville-Ginn doesn't really switch off his cycling side as he watches every race that is televised as well as being a rider himself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager.
He rides a Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on his local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being his preferred terrain.
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