Wout van Aert Bids Adieu to the Tour de France Ahead of Stage 18

Wout van Aert, 28, announced in a video released by Jumbo-Visma ahead of today’s stage, that he will be leaving the tour. “As everyone knows, Sarah is pregnant, things are starting to get a bit tight at home,” Van Aert said. “In consultation with the team we have decided that my place is now at home.”

Van Aert has been a crucial player in getting race leader Jonas Vingegaard where he is—comfortably ahead of Tadej Pogačar. We’ve seen him leading the breakaways and doing so much work for his team.

The Belgian rider has won 9 Tour de France stages in his career, but none this year—his first tour without a win. “I often had the legs to win a stage,” he said. “But it did not happen…I will always remember this Tour as the one where I called home every day.”

A nice reminder that there are a few things even more important than the Tour de France, and one of those things is family.

Without van Aert, Jumbo-Visma and Vingegaard will be leaning hard on Sepp Kuss. While it will make things a little more stressful, the team is no doubt grateful for all that van Aert was able to do thus far.

Rumors flew early in the tour that van Aert wouldn’t make it through the entire race. Now we know why. Both van Aert and Vingegaard were asked numerous times in interviews if Wout would be leaving. And numerous times they denied it. Clearly it was a day to day decision.

Van Aert said in the Jumbo-Visma video, "On the one hand, it's a strange feeling, but it's not a dilemma. It's an easy decision. I always thought that I would go home when my wife indicated she needed me. That time has come. So in that respect, it's not a dilemma.

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