Wout van Aert took his first cyclo-cross win of the 2018/19 season on Thursday when the Belgian won the Kermiscross in Ardooie, in West Flanders, Belgium, for the third year in a row. Van Aert has endured a difficult past few months away from the bike in that his former team, Veranda`s Willems-Crelan, announced in August that it was to merge with the Dutch Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij road team to create a new squad for 2019 - yet Van Aert said that he wasn`t told about the deal until the 11th hour, and was unhappy about it. Van Aert has already signed a deal to join LottoNL-Jumbo in 2020 - or Team Jumbo, as it`s set to be called from next season. The 24-year-old had enjoyed a hugely successful road season with Veranda`s Willems-Crelan in 2018, taking third place at the Strade Bianche, second place on a stage of the Tour of Austria, third place at the European Championship road race, and winning a stage and the overall classification at the Tour of Denmark.ADVERTISEMENT But, in mid-September, after the Roompot merger story came out, Van Aert terminated his contract with Veranda`s Willems-Crelan and went on to start the first round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Waterloo, Wisconsin, USA, without a team, wearing his world champion`s rainbow skinsuit with his initials - WVA - emblazoned across the front. At the start of this month, however, Van Aert announced that he had joined the one-man `off-road division` of the Cibel-Cebon team for the cyclo-cross season. The Belgian team also competes on the road at UCI Continental level. Van Aert`s Dutch rival, Mathieu van der Poel, wasn`t at Thursday`s Kermiscross in Ardooie.
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