{"id":601797,"date":"2025-11-29T18:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T18:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/601797\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T18:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T18:17:14","slug":"it-was-nice-to-have-a-good-friend-on-the-team-thats-something-ill-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/601797\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was nice to have a good friend on the team \u2014 That\u2019s something I\u2019ll miss\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nSpeaking to Domestique, Benoot didn\u2019t hide the personal side of the move<\/a>. Despite being ready for a new challenge, he knows that shifting teams means losing the everyday normality of life alongside his compatriot. \u201cWout\u2019s win in Calais is one of my nicest memories from the team, but in the end, it was just nice to have a good friend on the team,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019ll miss, but it\u2019s not the end of the world \u2013 we\u2019re just on different teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair were inseparable during their years together: long altitude camps, shared leadership roles in Spring, and full-gas Tour de France shifts in service of Jonas Vingegaard. Benoot was more than a luxury domestique \u2014 he became Van Aert\u2019s sounding board, climbing partner and, by his own admission, one of his closest friends in the peloton.<\/p>\n

Leaving Visma: \u201cI didn\u2019t have a real reason to leave\u201d<\/p>\n

Even stepping away from Visma itself wasn\u2019t straightforward. Benoot reveals he never felt pushed out, never felt undervalued, and never had a falling-out \u2014 making the decision strangely painful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was for sure difficult to leave Visma, because I didn\u2019t have a real reason to leave,\u201d he said. \u201cI was happy there, and I was a proud member of the team for four years. But in the end, I had to make a choice\u2026 It just felt like a good moment to step out of my comfort zone again.\u201d<\/p>\n

That honesty underscores the move: not a break, not a reaction, but a calculated gamble that the next phase of his career should come with renewed responsibility and fresh surroundings.<\/p>\n

\"benoot\"\/<\/p>\n

Benoot became a key part of Visma’s Classics team<\/p>\n

Why Decathlon felt right \u2014 and why the Wout factor still stings<\/p>\n

The Belgian speaks glowingly about his first impressions of his new environment. Meetings, testing days and early contacts have reassured him that he\u2019s joining a project with momentum and ambition. But the one thing a new camp cannot replicate is the comfort of a friendship built over years of shared pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really special to see how popular he is\u2026 but it\u2019s something I wouldn\u2019t want to have to cope with,\u201d Benoot admitted, reflecting on the intense spotlight Van Aert carries. It\u2019s admiration, tinged with respect \u2014 and relief \u2014 but also a recognition that he\u2019ll no longer be part of that inner circle.<\/p>\n

For a rider as steady and grounded as Benoot, the move to Decathlon represents professional evolution. Yet behind the transfer headlines is a quieter truth: leaving Visma wasn\u2019t just a sporting decision, it was a personal one. And the distance from a teammate who became a genuine friend is the part he admits hits hardest.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Speaking to Domestique, Benoot didn\u2019t hide the personal side of the move. Despite being ready for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,188743,79,180916,188742,16,15,34351],"class_list":{"0":"post-601797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-decathlon-cma-cgm-team","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","12":"tag-tiesj-benoot","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wout-van-aert"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115634363191130906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}