With the off-season over, preparations for 2023 began. Wout Van Aert and his Jumbo Visma teammates headed to Flanders for early reconditioning for the Cobblestone Classic.

The Dutch team will have its first real training camp in southern Spain in mid-December, but this week more than a third of the team gathered in northern Belgium for a series of trial runs.

On Tuesday they went on a course reconnaissance of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and on Wednesday they returned to the same area but followed the Tour of Flanders course.

Van Aert, the team's classic leader after winning Omloop and the E3 Classic and missing Flanders due to COVID-19, led the expedition along with newcomer Dylan Van Barre, the Paris-Roubaix champion.

The Dutchman, who cannot wear his new colors until his contract changes on January 1, stood out among his black-and-yellow teammates wearing the bright orange of his Ineos Grenadier training kit.

Joining the two Riders were Christophe Laporte, who finished arm-in-arm with Van Aert at E3, and Thais Benoot, who returned to the Ride this summer after breaking his neck. Other newcomers Tosh van der Sande, Edoardo Affini, Maarten Wynants, and Mick and Tim van Dijk were also named. The only major absentee was Nathan van Hooydonk.

"At first, we wanted to bring the group together as a kind of team building," team director Grischa Niermann, who participated in Tuesday's ride, told Nieuwsblad (open in new tab).

"At the same time, this is an ideal time to test materials. If we have to do that anyway, we can combine it with course reconnaissance. Not all riders live in the area.

"Also, the weather was great. It could have been a little warmer, but it was dry all day, even though rain was forecast. It was ideal weather for a training ride.

Recon rides are an ideal opportunity to test bike setups, especially wheels, tires, and tire pressures, but Jumbo Visma has the complication of changing its groupset supplier from Shimano to SRAM.

The Omloop reconnaissance on Tuesday covered a distance of 135 km and followed the early climbs around the Flanders Ardennes region before the famous finale at Mühl van Geraardsbergen and Vosberg and the entry into Ninove.

Remarkably, Van Aert warmed up with an 8.7 km run, which he completed in just over 40 minutes; on Strava, the Belgian titled the ride "Jumbo's on a mission."

The next day it was time for the Tour de Flanders. The Tour of Flanders, which took place in almost the same area, headed early on to the important final mountains of Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg, followed by the Koppenberg, the Taienberg, and finally the Hottondberg. Most of the ride was 75 km, but Van Aert added 20 km back to the hotel.

Van Aert will start the cyclocross season on December 4, attending the Jumbo-Visma training camp and returning to cyclocross until the World Championships in Hoogerheide on February 5. He is expected to make his road debut again at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but Neeleman revealed that nothing is set in stone.

"No, we can't conclude from Wout's presence whether he will be at the start or not, that will be announced on December 22."