Wout Van Art makes his road season debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. He will be challenged by the combined forces of Quick Step-Alphavinyl, Tom Pidcock, and other Classic rivals, but with no pressure to win, he will do his best to achieve his big goals in March and April. The opening weekend of racing is more of a proving ground for the strengthened Classics team.

Jumbo Visma's team leaders are hungry for success, but they are also focused on being at their best during a month packed with major classics and big goals, from Milan-San Remo on March 19 to Paris-Roubaix on April 17.

"The goal is later in the spring. Hopefully, I want to be explosive after the first race and be at my best in Milan-San Remo, and I want to maintain that in Paris-Roubaix," Van Aert explained to Wielerflits (opens in new tab) in a long interview.

"I think the riders who have already had two short stage races will have a bit of an advantage in the opening weekend. The effects of the Altitude Camp will be seen a little later.

"Omloop is more of a test to see what kind of race we can do as a team. Of course, we want to get results. We will start Omloop with ambition, but definitely not with a knife at our throats." [The Omloop is also a special race. Last year, a large group gathered at the finish. If that is the case again this year, there will be a few of us at the finish and we will have a good shot at the win.

"If it comes down to the battlefield, we may be just a few short."

Van Aert has just returned to Belgium from a three-week high-altitude training camp on Mount Teide in Tenerife, Spain, where, in addition to his Classics teammates, Primoš Roglic, Rohan Dennis, Steven Kruijswijk, and Jonas Vingegaard, in July form the core of Jumbo-Visma's Tour de France.

Jumbo-Visma has strengthened his Classics group to support the Classics fan art. He is an aggressive and fast finisher, but needs support in numbers to deal with the different tactics of the Ineos Grenadiers and especially Quick Step Alphavinir.

Van Aert's group now includes Tosh van der Sande, Tiesj Benoot, who left Team DSM for Jumbo Visma, faithful domestique Nathan van Hooydonk, fast finisher Mike Tunissen, and Frenchman Christophe Laporte, who joined from Cofidis. They should be a force to be reckoned with.

"One man to the final should not happen anymore. I don't believe that will happen anymore," Van Aert said, inspiring his teammates.

"We've been working on and off the bike for the past few weeks. We've been working on and off the bike for the past few weeks. We have thought about tactics, reviewed and analyzed past races. It means more than just attracting good riders to the team."

Jumbo Visma will make a final reconnaissance of the slightly modified Omloop Het Newsblad race route on Friday, 24 hours before the race. He will only compete in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, skipping Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne on Sunday, and will compete again in Paris-Nice, which starts Sunday, March 6.

Van Aert had a brief but successful cyclo-cross season in December and over the Christmas break, winning nine races.

He seems to have enjoyed a near-perfect winter preparation period as some riders suffered from COVID-29 infections and injuries.

"Everyone could see how smoothly things went during the race in December and early January, and everything went according to plan after that," he said confidently.

"Things seemed to go wrong for a while when our training camp in Alicante was interrupted by a coronavirus infection. After spending some time at home, we began serious preparations in Tenerife on February 1."

Tadei Pogacar and Alberto Bettiol, who were at the Hotel Parador near the summit of Teide, were quarantined, but Van Aert and his teammates seem to have escaped the COVID-19 infection.

"So far, we've been spared.

"If you are healthy and negative, your chances of being infected are relatively low. We had no contact with tourists and our restaurant was protected. Other than cycling, eating, and lying in bed, we did nothing. We are safer there than anywhere else."

VanArt laid the groundwork for the season in December, gaining speed, power, and acceleration in cyclocross, and is now spending more time in the saddle and building strength at altitude.

"Normally, I would start by building my base as wide as possible and then gradually increase the intensity starting in January. But for cyclocross, the intensity is a bit faster for me, and I have to be extra careful not to get out of shape too soon because the base is too narrow," van Art explained. [That is why during the training camp in Alicante in January we concentrated on endurance training and did only a few sprints. In Tenerife we avoided that kind of training and spent much more time on it. As a result, the base conditions are much better to start with."

"The mental benefits were also huge, I was able to train in a very relaxed way. In the last few years, I often had to race against time to prepare. Last year I fought for two weeks in Tenerife to get a good feeling and finally succeeded at the last minute. This time it was much smoother. And hopefully by the end of the spring my form will be less unpredictable."

Van Aert claims to have learned his lesson from 2021, when he went off the deep end at the Tour of Britain and was unlucky at a crucial moment at the World Championships in Belgium

"The Tour of Britain was a great success.

"I wasted a lot of energy at the Tour of Britain. I will definitely apply these lessons in the future," he admitted.

"I was still physically okay in Paris-Roubaix. But I'm paying the price for a long season of trying to peak in all the big races. So now I'm preparing differently. Only in Milan-San Remo will I be at my best."

That is why van Aert will not ride the Strade Bianche next Saturday, aiming for the overall win in Paris-Nice, Milan-San Remo, the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, Flanders Gent-Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders, and Amstel Gold Race, Paris-Roubaix, and only rides in Paris-Roubaix.

"In a short period like spring, you have to grab what you can. I want to help the team, I want to ride a full time trial and try to win a stage. But it's not every day. I have to use my energy, saving as much as I can so I don't get disadvantaged in the big races."

While his rivals were racing, van Aal was recovering from a long ride on the summit of Teide, watching the race and keeping track of their progress. He knows who to watch at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but like everyone else, he is unsure of their true form.

"The Classic players are quite scattered and it's hard to guess their true form. Brian Coquard, however, caught my eye."

"Quickstep Alphavinir got off to a good start, and Yves Lampert made a good impression.

"But you can't see everything on TV. For example, what have Oliver Naessen and Greg Van Avermaat already done in the race before we see the final?