Wout van Aert is to stay at Visma-Lease a Bike for the rest of his career, the squad announced on Wednesday morning.
The Belgian rider has entered a "unique" agreement with his Dutch team to ensure that he will ride in their colours for however long he keeps riding; the 30-year-old's previous deal ran out in 2026.
Long-term deals are nothing new in men's cycling, with Jonas Vingegaard signed with Visma until the end of 2028, and Mathieu van der Poel tied to Alpecein-Deceuninck until the same year. However, this could be the first open-ended contract deal, the length of which will be decided by how long Van Aert decides to keep on riding.
Van Aert is one of the stars of the sport and of his team, winning nine Tour de France stages, multiple one-day races and the cyclo-cross World Championships three times. He joined the team in 2019.
He had a mixed 2024, winning Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne at the beginning of the Classics season before he crashed out of Dwars door Vlaanderen, ending his charge at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. He recovered in time for the Tour, where he twice finished second on stages, and he then finished third in the individual time trial at the Olympics.
Van Aert returned to form at the Vuelta a España, where he won three stages and looked set to win the points and mountains jerseys, but he crashed and seriously injured himself, ending his season early.
"Wout is of course a fantastic rider with a great palmares," the team's boss, Richard Plugge, said on Wednesday. "He is an all-rounder: a sprinter, a classic rider, a time trialist and on his best days he also wins a mountain stage like the famous victory on Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France. But besides that, Wout has really become an important culture carrier, an indispensable link in our team.
"He is a leader and a team player. He is a rider who also makes others in the team better, just through his insights and charisma. We are extremely happy with him and fortunately that is mutual."
"I didn't have to think long when this idea came up," Wout van Aert said. "First of all, because at Visma-Lease a Bike we work with the best people and the best equipment. Together we are constantly looking for improvement, which means we keep developing individually but also as a team. I owe a lot of success to that, we really do it together.
"I feel very much at home in this team, which is very important to me. This team is unique and has suited me for five years and I want to keep it that way. That's why I decided to stay here forever, and that feels really good."
