A special helmet to conquer Flanders. It was delivered to Wout Van Aert at the Visma-Lease a Bike team bus and is a gift that some Belgian athletes, sponsored by Red Bull, wanted to give to the Flemish champion.

Van Aert was already easily recognizable in the peloton thanks to the Red Bull colors on his helmet, but now he'll have another one that's even more personalized. Some athletes, including heptathlete Nafi Thiam, rally driver Thierry Neuville and triathlete Marten Van Riel, all from the Red Bull "family", brought him a helmet with the fingerprints of 15 athletes imprinted on it as a demonstration of their closeness to the champion from Herentals. "We're all rooting for Van Aert": this was the message they wanted to convey to encourage him.

Nothing had been arranged with the thirty-one-year-old from Visma: Van Aert saw Thiam and Neuville show up. And in a fun video on Red Bull's Instagram page, you can also see hockey player Felix Denayer and figure skater Lore Bruggeman personally deliver the helmet to the unsuspecting Van Aert.

Wout was pleasantly surprised. "It's nice that you went to the trouble of coming to bring it to me". "I like supporting Wout this way - said Thiam - He's a complete cyclist: strong in sprints, climbing, time trials and one-day races, and all of this at the highest level. For a versatile athlete like me, this is naturally a quality that stands out".