Tom Boonen has said Wout van Aert bid to win the world title will be harder for the rest of his career considering the "precedent" set by Belgium team mate Remco Evenepoel this year.
The Belgian cycling legend also said Van Aert could have won bigger races this year, saying he was now running out of time to rack up the kind of victories all the great riders want in their palamares.
Boonen said while Van Aert was the leader of the Belgium team at their home Worlds in Belgium last year, when Evenepoel was a secondary rider, that dynamic had now shifted and would never return to what it had been.
“Becoming world champion won't get any easier after this year. Evenepoel has set a serious precedent," Boonen told Wielerflits of Van Aert's career in the years ahead.
Advertisement
“Last year you had the debacle in Leuven and the quarrel that followed, but at that time Remco was not really a competitor of Wout. He hadn't been anywhere until this year. There was a clear ranking: Wout was the leader and Remco was still the servant. But in 2022 everything will have changed.
Related News
“Remco will never be under Wout again. That shift is final and is also alive in the cycling federation. That might sting Wout – it will excite him in any case. The relationship between Wout and Remco will be interesting to follow. As it is now, it will not always be. But it is certain that they will often meet and often need each other.”
This year Evenepoel not only won La Vuelta - the first Belgian Grand Tour win for over 40 years - but also won both the world title and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in dominant fashion.
Boonen also said Van Aert was unlucky to get Covid-19 in the spring - thus undermining his chances of winning the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. As a result of Van Aert's illness, Boonen said he did not want to be too "harsh" when discussing when he could have or should have won this year.
But despite all the victories he took, and being so impressive in the Tour de France, Boonen said Van Aert could have had a better season and he needed to start winning the very biggest races as the opportunities to do that were starting to pass.
“The only thing missing this year is a monument, they say," Boonen commented on Van Aert's 2022 season. "But that's also all that matters. A rider of his level is racing to win those races. It's nice that you are called the best rider in the world for months, but that's not the point. Wout has to win classics.
"Make no mistake: meanwhile, the years are ticking. I am convinced that he will still succeed, but will he win the Ronde three times and Roubaix four times? Champions race for those kinds of records.”
