Final moments of vacation for Wout Van Aert who is in California with his Visma Lease a Bike teammates and is exploring other sports. Of course, the bicycle is always at the center of his thoughts, but the thirty-one-year-old Belgian enjoyed himself on the racetrack, trying his hand at driving a racing car, then attended the NBA game between the LA Lakers and San Antonio Spurs together with Nathan Van Hooydonck and Visma Lease-a-Bike team leader Richard Plugge.

And with basketball, he had another experience: Van Aert had the opportunity to play basketball with Reggie Miller, five-time NBA All-Star, and with Lethal Shooter, considered one of the best shooters in the world. The Belgian worked on his shooting under the watchful eye of Miller, now 60 years old, who gifted him a jersey from his lifelong team, the Indiana Pacers, and was honored by Wout with an autographed Visma Lease a Bike jersey.

Wout van Aert will begin his preparation next week in view of the 2026 season: for him, as announced, there will be no specific cyclocross objectives, but the choice is to give absolute priority to preparing for the spring classics.