Wout van Aert selected to ride Tokyo Olympics
The Belgian star is set to take part in the road race and the time trial after riding the Tour de France
Wout van Aert has been selected as one of the riders to represent Belgium at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan.
Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is likely going to be the country's leader in the road race as well as going for the gold medal in the time trial too.
Belgium comes into these games as defending champions with Greg Van Avermaet (Ag2r-Citroën) taking the gold medal five years ago in Rio, Brazil.
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Van Aert has had another super season taking Amstel Gold Race in a dramatic photo finish with Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) as well as an amazing performance in Tirreno-Adriatico, winning a bunch sprint on stage one, beating Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) in the time trial on the final stage and finishing second overall behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
But, he will be hoping to go one better than the last time he rode for the national team in road racing and time trials as he took the silver medal in both events at the World Championships in Imola 2020.
Van Aert will be one of the main favourites for both events but the support around him will be world-class as well. Former European time trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) is expected to be lining up alongside Van Aert for the time trial.
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The rest of the squad for the men's road race has not yet been announced but we know that the women's side is sending a very strong team of Lotte Kopecky (Liv Racing), Valerie Demey (Liv Racing) and Julie Van de Velde (Jumbo-Visma) with Van de Velde also riding the time trial.
This is his program for the coming months🗓 pic.twitter.com/5PNEeTw5DwJune 11, 2021
Jumbo-Visma has also announced Van Aert's upcoming race calendar with the Belgian star surprisingly not taking part in the Belgian National Time Trial Championships, instead focussing on the road race before heading to the Tour de France.
At the Tour, Van Aert will once again be working for his leader Primož Roglič but may get his chance to go for stage wins in sprint stages and potentially a tilt at the green jersey.
Van Aert may consider leaving the Tour early to fly over to Japan for the games.
The remaining two races on his list are the two Olympic events with no mention of the European Championships or the WorldCchampionships as of yet.
Tim Bonville-Ginn is a freelance writer who has worked with Cycling Weekly since 2020 and has also written for many of the biggest publications in cycling media including Cyclingnews, Rouleur, Cyclist and Velo.