Wout van Aert starts extended break before cyclocross season with an 11km run

The Belgian road race champion may be taking a break from the bike but he's still uploading to Strava

Wout van Aert at the Tour of Britain 2021
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Wout van Aert may well be on an extended break from riding his bike after finishing in the top 10 of the recent Paris-Roubaix but that hasn't stopped him uploading his runs to Strava.

Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) uploaded an 11.19km run taking just over 50 minutes south of the Lille in Belgium, east of the city of Antwerp.

Even though the weather was apparently rain, it didn't put the Belgian off from getting out and doing some form of exercise in his off-season with Vincent Van Rooy, who joined Van Aert on the run.

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Van Aert averaged 4-33 minutes per kilometre and his fastest kilometre was at 4-20/km, which is a very good pace for an amateur runner.

Wout van Aert's Strava upload

(Image credit: Strava)

Van Aert is taking a break after a very long season including the 2020/21 cyclocross season before heading into Strade Bianche and the rest of the road season.

Speaking to Het Laatste Nieuws, Van Aert's trainer Marc Lamberts said: "We’d rather a week longer than a week less. I don’t care what his shape and weight he will be afterwards.

"Wout will not do anything for three or four weeks, which will cause him to lose all, if not much of, his current fitness. That’s okay. I don’t care what his shape and weight will be afterward. If necessary, we will rebuild from scratch."

It is not known if Van Aert will be taking part at the American cyclocross races that open the World Cup and Superprestige season in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Speaking after finishing seventh at Paris-Roubaix, Van Aert said: "I’ll be gone for a while - it’s been an extremely demanding season. It’s been a few years since I took a long break – I’m planning to take that break now."

It is not known where Van Aert will join the cyclocross season, if he does at all, and whether or not he'll be riding the CX World Championships before heading into the 'Opening Weekend' of Classics at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in February.

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Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm 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. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.