Visma: “Paris-Roubaix Suits Wout the Best” — Team Backs Van Aert to Finally Break His Most Agonising Hoodoo
Visma-Lease a Bike performance director Mathieu Heijboer has delivered a ringing endorsement of Wout van Aert’s Paris-Roubaix credentials, declaring that the Hell of the North is the Classic “that suits Wout the best, and that’s been the case his entire career.” The bold claim comes after Van Aert produced an encouraging fourth-place finish at the Tour of Flanders and now turns his full attention to Sunday’s cobblestone showdown.
The statistics tell a story of tantalising near-misses. Van Aert has finished second, third and fourth at Paris-Roubaix across his career without ever standing on the top step of the podium in the Vélodrome. It is the most painful gap in the palmarès of a rider who has won virtually everything else the cobbled Classics have to offer — two Tours of Flanders, an E3, a Gent-Wevelgem, and a Dwars door Vlaanderen among his haul.
“We can work towards next week with confidence,” Heijboer told reporters after Flanders. The performance director pointed to Van Aert’s sustained power output across the final 80 kilometres of the Ronde as evidence that the Belgian’s diesel engine is primed for the longer, more attritional demands of Roubaix’s 258 kilometres and 30 cobbled sectors.
Visma’s confidence is underpinned by significant equipment preparation. The team completed a full cobblestone reconnaissance earlier in the spring, with Van Aert joined by trusted lieutenant Christophe Laporte and new signings Timo Kielich and Aldo Taillieu for tyre pressure testing on the Carrefour de l’Arbre. The team will also deploy their experimental GRAVAA adjustable tyre pressure system — the same technology that helped teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot win Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2025 — despite the Dutch startup behind the system going bankrupt in January.
The tactical picture, however, is complicated by the sheer quality of the opposition. Tadej Pogacar arrives seeking a Monument Grand Slam, while Mathieu van der Poel is chasing a record-equalling fourth consecutive victory. Van Aert’s challenge is to find a way past both — and history suggests that Paris-Roubaix rewards the rider who avoids trouble, reads the race, and arrives at the Vélodrome with the freshest legs.
That profile fits Van Aert perfectly. His cyclo-cross background gives him unmatched bike-handling skills on the treacherous pavé, while his time-trialling power allows him to sustain relentless tempo through the longest sectors. If Pogacar and Van der Poel mark each other into stalemate — as nearly happened at the Tour of Flanders — Van Aert is the rider best placed to exploit the deadlock.
“Wout knows what he needs to do,” Heijboer said. “The legs are there. The team is ready. Paris-Roubaix is the one he wants the most, and I believe this is his year.” After years of agonising near-misses, cycling’s most versatile rider has five days to prepare for the race that could define his legacy.