Former Classics star Tom Boonen has insisted that Wout van Aert “could have done better” in 2022 despite the Jumbo-Visma rider claiming multiple Tour de France stages as well as three major one-day races.
Van Aert claimed the green jersey and three stage wins in the 2022 Tour de France, in a series of spectacular performances in radically varying terrain, ranging from the hill country of northern France to the time trial at the end of the third week. He also provided key support for Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard as the Dane battled for a first Tour de France win and succeeded.
As if that was not enough, Van Aert also clinched victory in the E3 Saxo Bank Classic and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in the spring, the Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France in the summer, and two stages in the Critérium du Dauphiné and one in Paris-Nice to boot.
However, Boonen told the Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws this week “I hear he couldn't have done better this year, but I don’t agree with that.”
“The only thing missing this year is a Monument, they say. But that’s also all that matters. Someone of his level is riding to win those races.”
Boonen admitted that Van Aert had had bad luck as he caught COVID-19 before the Tour of Flanders and could not race there. Van Aert subsequently did take part in Paris-Roubaix, finishing second, and he claimed third in Liège-Bastogne-Liège as well.
“I don’t want to be too tough,” Boonen said in the same interview with Het Laatste Nieuws, “he was having a great spring and then he went down with COVID at a crucial moment.”
When discussing how the relationship between Van Aert and Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) may now play out after Evenepoel became Belgium’s first World Champion in a decade this autumn, Boonen was equally categorical.
“Evenepoel has set a serious precedent,” said Boonen. “Last year you had the debacle in Leuven” - where Belgian teammates Evenepoel and Van Aert raced at odds in the World Championships on home soil - “and the quarrel that followed.”
“But there was a clear ranking: Wout was the leader and Remco was still the servant. Then in 2022 everything changed."
Boonen argued that although the two would cross paths and “often need each other in the future," having taken the rainbow jersey, Evenepoel would never be playing second fiddle to Van Aert again, saying “that shift is final.”
As for the question of the Classics, given Van Aert has won Milano-Sanremo but is yet to take any of the northern Monuments, Boonen argued that the Jumbo-Visma racer, who will be 29 next year, does not necessarily have time on his side.
Referring to his own multiple triumphs in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, Boonen argued that “Make no mistake, time is ticking by. I am convinced that he will still succeed, but will he win the Ronde three times and Roubaix four times? Champions race for those kinds of records."
