Wout van Aert

Welcome home wout!

A lot has been written about Wout Van Aert lately. After the 3 time UCI CX World Champion chose to fly solo for this CX season, he contacted us to become his clothing supplier. A no brainer for us. You see, our story began long before Wout contacted us to become his sponsor, and he wanted to work with us because he was thankful for the successes he already had in our gear. We are humbled, and we can only say, welcome home Wout!

This story will give you an insight into the stories we've already written together.

TEST 23

2012 - junior

Wout has long been small for his age. When racing, he always had to compete guys who were bigger and stronger than him. We think it's for this that he formed his character. His "over my dead body" mentality earned him a second place in the Junior CX Worlds in Koksijde, only eight seconds behind Mathieu van der Poel. Here you see him riding away from the pack, closing in on Mathieu.

2013 - 2014 - u23

Louisville marked Wout's first Worlds les espoirs, and he managed to obtain an impressive result. Third place behind Mike Theunissen and Wietse Bosmans.

During the 2014 Worlds in Hoogerheide, he won his first World Championship, in front of Michael Vanthourenhout and... Mathieu van der Poel.

2015

Wout's first year with the pros. He and Mathieu had been dominating a field of experienced pros for an entire season. Wout came with high hopes to Tabor. A superior Mathieu van der Poel and a crash early in the race meant 2nd place was the highest ranking he could aim for. Though he was disappointed, Belgium knew a new CX star was on the horizon.

2016 - 2017

Zolder 2016. Belgium vs the Netherlands. Wout vs Mathieu. Right before the Worlds we came out with the most advanced cross suit to date. It was based on our Speedmaster TT suits, with the same textured sleeves and aero benefits, but with a slightly more forgiving fit and a zipper in the front. Next to that, it was made of a modified, water repellent Lycra. This suit is the suit Wout still is wearing during most of his races. And you can get it here. Wout took his first World Championships after a late break. Lars van der Haar came in second, Kevin Pauwels was third.

Bièles 2017. Belgium vs the Netherlands. Wout vs Mathieu. From the start, Mathieu took the lead, and Wout had to follow. We have to admit, Mathieu was the best rider, but Wout's strategy and tire choices were better.

Wout became World Champion, Mathieu took second place. Wout had 0 punctures, Mathieu 3. Choice of material proved to be decisive that day.

2018

2017-2018 was a season of keeping in touch with Mathieu.

MvdP dominated the season, Wout was the best of the rest. Mathieu wanted to prove the world he was the best rider and showed it from the day after a disappointing Bièles Worlds throughout the new season. The Worlds would be ridden in Valkenburg, a town in MvdP's home country. Everybody saw him as the man to beat.

Wout had a similar preparation to the CX season as Mathieu, but road racing took a lot of his energy and it took him longer than usual to get on the same level as Mathieu. Little did we know he was peaking to be on his best at the World's in Valkenburg...

Straight from the start, he started riding away from the rest, and kept building up the gap until the end of the race. Wout was on another level that day.