Wout van Aert and his teammates from Jumbo-Visma who will start in the Omloop on Saturday will explore part of the course tomorrow. For Van Aert, the Belgian opening race does not seem to be the main goal yet, after a recent internship.
Wout van Aert, Tosh Van der Sande, Tiesj Benoot and Nathan Van Hooydonck, among others, have pitched their tents on the flanks of the Teide in Tenerife in recent days for an altitude internship, to add a few more percentages with a view to what is now standing at the door.
Van Aert and co will explore the course of the Omloop on Friday. And although the Belgian leader of Jumbo-Visma does not yet have a race kilometer on the counter, it is still being put forward as one of the favorites for Saturday.
“Men who have already completed a few stage races will have an advantage this weekend,” says Van Aert himself. “I have completed an altitude internship myself. Normally you only bear the fruits of that later. I hope that this will be the case in the period March-April.”
I view the Omloop as a test to see how we can pull ourselves together as a team.
“I view the Omloop as a test to see how we can pull ourselves together as a team. Our team has been considerably strengthened. I expect that I will be able to count on the support of a few teammates in the finals of various spring classics. used to be different.”
General manager Richard Plugge is satisfied with the reinforced spring core. “We have certainly strengthened ourselves by attracting riders like Tiesj Benoot, Tosh Van der Sande and Christophe Laporte,” Plugge says.
“But we look beyond the spring classics. They will also help us in stage races and other one-day races that are not part of the spring classics.”
