Wout Van Aert will be taking on a new race in Jumbo-Visma (open in new tab) starting in the 2021 season, with an eye on a week-long stage race.

The Belgian is one of the top riders in 2020, having won two stages of the Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, and Tour de France, finishing runner-up in the Tour de Flanders, and winning both the road race and time trial at the Imola World Championships.

In the Tour de France, he showed his knack for climbing as a superdomestique for Primoz Roglic. He denied it at the time, but cited stage races and hill classics as his future goals.

"Expanding the Classics remains a priority. Maybe one day we will change the course, but that is still a long way off," Van Aert said in an interview with Sport/Voetbalmagazine (opens in new tab).

"I want to be first in Tirreno-Adriatico, Criterium du Dauphiné, and Tour de Suisse as well. Especially in stage races with time trials like Tirreno-Adriatico...I want to get a result in GC in 2021 and also in classics with a lot of hills like Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia."

The 26-year-old also said he has rediscovered his passion for the sport during his long recovery from his crash at the 2019 Tour de France. He had just returned to racing during the cyclocross season in late December after hitting a barrier in the Pau time trial and suffering a deep thigh injury.

"When you're glued to a hospital bed and a couch for a month, you realize how much fun cycling is," he said.

"I never thought about that before. Now I think about how much I love being a cyclist while cycling"

. [At some point, I detached myself from negative thoughts and stopped constantly asking myself if I was still okay. I focused on my rehabilitation. That's how the sportsman in me came back again."

After returning from months of rest, he suffered a painful loss to longtime rival Mathieu van der Pol in several cross races during the winter.

In the resumed 2020 road season, he won Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche while van der Pol finished outside the top 10, as well as the Tour de France and World Championships. He then went on to show success in the Tour de France and World Championships.

Van Aert suggested that the perception of their rivalry was different on the road.

In the cyclocross field, the two were always separated from the rest of the field and often had the advantage, with Van der Poel often coming out on top, while in the 2020 road season, the two competed against much deeper fields and bigger rivals and won together.

"Last season I achieved similar performances to Mathieu in various top races. I am proud of that," Van Aert said of his success on the road in 2020.

"Even if Mathieu beats me, like in the Tour de Flanders, I'm still the second best rider in the world. That's not too bad.

"Fortunately, the perception on the road is different than on the 'cross, because there the two of us are not the same. Because there it's only between the two of us, and the loser is always a "loser" worse than the other. But if we can kick the crap out of the other top riders, as we did in Flanders, then everyone recognizes what we are capable of."

The war of words after being marked by Van der Pol in Ghent-Wevelgem meant that the two would remain rivals.

"In cyclocross, where we stand out, it's different. How can I beat him, how can I match my training to his strong qualities?

"It would be easier to accept losing in the cross than losing in the Tour de Flanders. Not that the crosses are a sideshow, but they are a little less important than the roads."