The Classics season is about to begin and Tiesj Benoot, loyal teammate of Wout Van Aert, in a media meeting has drawn a precise picture of what might happen in a few weeks. The Belgian knows the Classics well and in his palmares there is also the victory at Strade Bianche in 2018, when he dropped Bardet and Van Aert at Le Tolfe and soloed to the finish line. Benoot thinks that the difference between Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders compared to Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Lombardy is huge, not only for the route but for easier predictions, where Pogacar remains the number one favorite.

"When Pogacar is at the start of the Tour of Lombardy or Liège-Bastogne-Liège, everyone says in advance that the winner is already known. However, this is not yet the case in Flemish races" - Benoot explained -. "Let's say there are more possibilities in the Flemish Classics and if you look at the Tour of Flanders as it is now, it is really, really much harder. Just look at 2023, where Pogacar simply overtook Van der Poel on the Oude Kwaremont".

Benoot hopes that Van Aert will finally manage to win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix and would like to be by his side in these races. His Visma-Lease a Bike is undoubtedly one of the strongest teams, but it is never easy to compete in races where there are champions like Van der Poel and Pogacar.

"Winning will be very difficult, we cannot deny it. But I think we have the strongest team overall. We have more options than other teams and we will try to exploit them to the best. And then we'll see what will be possible. The Tour of Flanders is not the Tour de France and it lasts one day and many things can happen".

The Belgian thinks that Pogacar is the strongest rider in the world, but that he is not truly unbeatable. A rider like Van Aert has shown that he can always be among the best and sooner or later everyone hopes he will win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix.

"We are not worried about what our opponents will do but look at something else. If we think about the Olympics this summer, Wout was the only rider who stood up to Mathieu van der Poel when he was going at full speed. But in the end who won? Remco Evenepoel. If Wout had not followed Van der Poel, he would have gone away. Everyone in Belgium, and especially our team, hopes that Wout can win in the most important races. I don't think I would want to see anyone else arrive first except Wout. I really hope he manages to win the most important races and I would like to be with him on the day it happens".