Van Aert Fourth at Flanders — Visma Shut Out of Monument Podium Again
For Wout van Aert, the 2026 Tour of Flanders ended where too many of his recent Monument Sundays have ended: close to the front, far from the flowers. The Belgian rolled across the line in Oudenaarde in fourth place, behind Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel, with his face telling the story long before the television microphones reached him.
Fourth at Flanders is not a bad result. For most of the peloton it would be a career day. But for Van Aert, the three-time podium finisher who has spent a career chasing a Ronde van Vlaanderen win, it was another reminder that the summit of cobbled classics racing in 2026 is a room occupied by three men — and that he is not currently one of them.
"I gave what I had," Van Aert said in the mixed zone, shoulders sagging beneath his Visma-Lease a Bike jersey. "On the last Kwaremont I couldn't follow when Tadej went, and once you lose that wheel at Flanders, the race is gone. Mathieu and Remco were simply stronger in the chase. Fourth is fourth — I am not going to pretend it doesn't hurt."
The disappointment was shared across Visma's bus. The Dutch team arrived in Bruges with a stated ambition of putting a rider on the podium at every Monument this spring, and they have now been shut out of the top three at both E3 Saxo Classic and Flanders. Matteo Jorgenson and Tiesj Benoot rode strong supporting roles through the Paterberg and Koppenberg, but when the race broke open on the final Oude Kwaremont ascent, Visma simply did not have a rider who could match Pogačar's acceleration.
The most telling moment of Van Aert's day came not in the finale but with roughly 60 kilometres remaining, when the level-crossing incident in Zulte briefly split the peloton and forced the commissaires to neutralise the race. Van Aert had been positioned perfectly in the front group at the moment the barriers came down, only to see the re-start swallow his positional advantage. Afterwards he was careful not to use the incident as an excuse, but team sources privately acknowledged that the restart disrupted Visma's carefully planned lead-in to the Kruisberg.
The deeper frustration is that Van Aert's form in 2026 has been undeniably good. He won a stage at Paris-Nice, finished on the podium at Gent-Wevelgem, and has repeatedly been in the right place at the right time in the key moments of the cobbled season. What he lacks, right now, is the top-end explosive kick that separates Pogačar, Van der Poel and Evenepoel from the rest of the contenders on a three-percent cobbled drag like the Kwaremont.
Attention now swings, inevitably, to Paris-Roubaix next Sunday. Van Aert has previously said he increasingly sees Roubaix as his best chance of a debut Monument, and the Hell of the North is a race where his time-trialling strength and brute power over the flat pavé can matter more than a single explosive acceleration. With Pogačar also targeting Roubaix in pursuit of his own place in history, the dynamics of the peloton on 12 April will be fascinating — and for Van Aert, unforgiving.
"Roubaix is Roubaix," he said, managing a half-smile as he left the paddock. "It is a different race. A very different race. I will take a day, and then I will get ready."