Wout van Aert on Aqua Blue Sport: He would have been a huge asset when trying to secure elusive race invites. But Wout van Aert has said he knew nothing about his team's talks with the Irish squad until it broke in the media.
Wout van Aert knew nothing of Aqua Blue Sport deal
The star rider that Aqua Blue Sport was looking to sign, Wout van Aert has said he knew nothing about his team’s plan to join forces with the Irish squad.
Van Aert has won the world cyclocross title and has shown star quality on the road this season.
His bronze medal in the road race at the European Championships was just the latest in a string of top performances.
Van Aert has not only performed well this year; he has done it on the back of a full cyclocross season. And he intends to continue racing off road this winter.
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The pro road scene is looking on eagerly to see what he can do when he decides to focus solely on road in 2020. And because of that he is hot property.
With Aqua Blue Sport having struggled to secure race invites, van Aert would have strengthened its hand.
And that was one of the main reasons it was speaking with the Belgian’s trade team Veranda’s Willems-Crelan.
News emerged earlier this month the two teams were merging. However, Aqua Blue Sport put out a statement saying it was buying the other team, not merging with it.
But no sooner had it done that than Veranda’s Willems-Crelan issued a statement distancing itself from the Irish outfit’s release.
It said talks were continuing with Aqua Blue Sport. But on Monday the Irish team said those talks had terminated and it was ending its time as a ProContinental team.
Indeed, less than 24 hours later it emerged Aqua Blue Sport had already stopped racing and would not even ride the Tour of Britain.
Veranda’s Willems-Crelan has announced this week it has merged with Dutch team Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij for next year.
Wout van Aert has a contract until the end of 2019 with Sniper Cycling, which owns Veranda’s Willems-Crelan.
But he has now given an interview in Belgium saying he wants to leave. He said he knew nothing about the Aqua Blue Sport attempted deal.
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He took to Twitter in recent days suggesting with all the team goings on he may take a ‘gap year’ in 2019.
But now speaking to Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws he has clarified his position. When doing a phone interview his wife also jumped in at one stage.
“Saying that I was going to take a gap year was perhaps a little far-fetched. But it has not been easy these past couple of weeks,” he said.
His wife Sara then jumped in joining the conversation on speaker phone in their car, saying: “Not easy? He feels a wreck. They have mentally cracked him. But Wout is too tough to admit it.”
Van Aert then resumed the interview describing his relationship with his team’s manager Nick Nuyens as “below freezing”.
The team says van Aert is contracted until the end of next year. And because Sniper Cycling will continue as a commercial paying agent after the merger, the contract is still valid.
But van Aert is now clear; he wants out. He says too many people have left the team to make it a place for him.
And he added he knew nothing of the Aqua Blue Sport attempted deal and was only told of the Roompot merger minutes before a press release was sent out yesterday.
“Communication with the riders? Nil,” he said. “A few weeks ago we had to read in the press that we would be absorbed by Aqua Blue Sports. Nobody was aware.
“Today comes a press release that fuses the team with Roompot. I was notified about five minutes before sending the official communiqué.
“Team manager Michiel Elijzen also received a phone call. ‘Good news, we have a deal,’ he was told.
“He was ten told in the same breath that there was also a drawback to the story: there is no room for (him).”
Van Aert said his own carer in the team was now gone, as were many of the riders. Also departed was director and former double world cyclocross champion Niels Albert.
“The complete structure of the team that started so promising at the beginning of 2017 is gone,” van Aert said.
If he stayed, the new team would be mainly Dutch and he would have to settle in. Furthermore, he would go through that process again 12 months later when he is expected to be a LottoNL-Jumbo WorldTour rider.
However, since he gave his interview Sniper Cycling has issued a strongly worded statement saying he must honour his contract.
“For Wout van Aert, one of the spearheads within the team, there will be a central role in team Roompot - Crelan next year before making his move to the World Tour,” Sniper Cycling said.
“Van Aert still has a commitment with Sniper Cycling that expires on 31 December, 2019. We are loyal towards ongoing contracts and expect that our riders are too.
“The collaboration with Roompot means that we, Sniper Cycling, can build a stronger and more competitive team to support Wout van Aert even better than before and to continue our growth process.”
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