Late on Sunday night, our cycling family received the news we had all hoped we would never hear. Verandas Willems-Crelan  announced the death of their rider Michael Goolaerts after a cardiac arrest sustained at Paris-Roubaix. He was just 23 years old. All our thoughts are with those who knew and loved him.

He was a young man doing the job he loved. Let us remember him this way.

Goolie, born like me in 1994. Consequently, we have been together in the peloton for years. I cannot yet grasp the end of this. Your eternal smile will always remain an inspiration to me.  Wout Van Aert