From January 1, Wout Van Aert will ride for Crelan-Charles, a new team where he can also ride on the road. "I will stay in cyclo-cross for at least one more year but now I have something up my sleeve," the 22-year-old world champion explains.

Crelan-Charles is the new cross team built around Wout Van Aert. Jappe Jaspers, Tim Merlier and Dutchman Stan Godrie are his teammates.

"I am delighted to be part of this new team," Van Aert said at the presentation in Sint-Niklaas. "I will continue to do cyclo-cross, but in this team I can have a nice road schedule.

"It is just to prepare for cyclo-cross field but I cannot hide that I like to race on the road."

For the road races, Van Aert gets a place at sister team, Willems Veranda’s-Crelan, featuring Stijn Devolder, Timothy Dupont and Lithuanian Aidis Kruopis.

"With this team I want to do short stage races like the Tour of Belgium and Ster ZLM Toer in addition to some nice one-day races."

With victories in the Tour of Belgium and the Schaal Sels, Wout van Aert showed in 2016 that his engine also can do well on the road. "My dream is to once do the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix ride,” he conceded, "but it certainly won’t be the case in 2017."

"If I ever do De Ronde, it has to fit into my schedule. I want to plan everything in advance. So I will certainly continue to be a cyclo-cross rider for a while but now I have something on hand. The intention is to become stronger and that I can have a solid road schedule."