Van Aert to race cyclo-cross season with Cibel-Cebon

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Wout van Aert's team woes have come to an end - at least temporarily - as he announced that he has signed on with the UCI Continental Cibel-Cebon team as a one-man off-road squad for the cyclo-cross season.

The reigning 'cross world champion's time with his former Veranda's Willems-Crelan team came to an end after a confusing period where it was first announced the team would merge with Aqua Blue Sport only for those negotiations to fall apart, then finally a merger with the Roompot squad was finalised.

Van Aert terminated his contract with Sniper Cycling, the Veranda's Willems team's management company, on September 17 of this year, just before he flew to the United States for the first two rounds of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup.

After racing the US events in a generic world champion's jersey and on a Stevens bike, which was cobbled together just before the trip, Van Aert will now have the support of the Cibel-Cebon team but continue to race on his Stevens bike. The road team is sponsored by CKT. Van Aert has an additional sponsor in CAPS, a Belgian fuel card company.

The 2019 road season is still up in the air, however, as Van Aert hopes to once again target some of the Spring Classics - races the Continental outfit is not entitled to enter.

The contract with Cibel-Cebon is only an interim solution for five months, and the team does not expect to extend it beyond that as Van Aert continues to search for a path to the WorldTour in 2019.