Is Wout van Aert losing his killer instinct? "The winner in me is still here"

Wout van Aert has already won several major classics in his career, secured numerous stage wins in the Tour de France, and was very successful in cyclocross, but in recent years the Belgian has not been stringing together victories. According to some, he has lost his killer instinct, but Van Aert himself absolutely disagrees with that.

Former rider and cycling journalist Thijs Zonneveld was very outspoken just a few days ago in his podcast In De Waaier: Van Aert has lost the instinct to win races. "Van Aert is basically making every mistake a rider of his caliber shouldn’t make. These are almost rookie mistakes. His instinct has really been missing for a while," he said after the stage to Martinsicuro, which was won by his great rival Mathieu van der Poel.

But how does Van Aert see this himself? "I don’t know who started that theory. Of course, I understand that I’m winning significantly less than before, but that doesn’t mean the winner in me has disappeared," he states clearly in an interview with Sporza.

"I can win Milan-San Remo"
The Belgian is also going all in for victory in Milan-San Remo, which is already on the schedule for this coming Saturday, although he remains realistic. "I don’t think I’m one of the favorites. Pogacar and Van der Poel are the big favorites. But I can win, because San Remo is a race where many things can happen. I think my legs were good the past week. I’m going there to win."

And how far do his ambitions stretch for the subsequent races? "If from now on I can just have a good classics period where I can always give my best, I will be satisfied. I hope the results will follow. The work is more or less done and I have done everything to be as good as possible. Now the big one-day races can come."