Jumbo-Visma's Wout Van Aert admitted that he still needs some time to get back to the form he was in before his fall at the Tour de France in July. The last few months have been devoted to recovering from a serious thigh injury sustained when he hit the spectator wall in the individual time trial on stage 13 of the Tour de France.

But Tuesday's victory at the Prix de Flandrien, Belgium's rider of the year, seemed to give the 25-year-old the boost he needed to start thinking about the 2020 season.

"I still have a long way to go," Van Aert told Belgian news site Nieuwsblad.be after receiving the award.

He said he was pleased with the progress of his recovery and was on track to return to full health.

"I want to race cyclocross this winter," said the three-time world cyclocross champion and three-time Belgian champion. 'I think I need to do that. It would be fun for me and for many others."

But two months out from this year's Belgian championships, Van Aert knows he has a lot of work to do to be competitive there.

"I haven't done anything yet in terms of running, training, or conditioning. 'My longest training so far has been three hours. So if I were to do cyclocross, it would be mainly to get back to being competitive and to get back to being explosive. But as soon as I feel I can get back to racing cross, I will. I would rather race a few races and finish 15th than not race and regain my fitness in another way."

As for the road, Van Aert told Nieuwsblad.be that he and his Jumbo Visma teammate will head to Spain on December 11 for a training camp.

"I'm going to achieve a certain level of fitness by then in order to run with my Jumbo-Visma teammates. I don't know how realistic that is yet, but it's one of those little goals I set for myself."

VanArt won Flandrien of the Year ahead of Remco Evenepoel and his Detunink-Quickstep teammate Philippe Gilbert, but admitted that Gilbert was the favorite to win.

"He won Paris-Roubaix and Lemko had a good win. When I saw him win the Clasica San Sebastian, I almost fell out of my seat.

"Spring was beautiful," Van Aert said of his performance in the E3 Binkbank Classic, where he finished second behind Strade Bianche (3rd), Milan - San Remo (6th), and Zdenek Stival of Dečuninck-Quick Step.

"But after the Tour de Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, I was disappointed in myself. It's true that I was the most consistent Belgian rider [this year], but the Tour de France would have made the difference," Van Aert said. Although he was making his Tour debut, he was part of the Jumbo-Visma team that won the team time trial on stage 2 in his hometown of Brussels, and won stage 10 in a group sprint in Albi over Elia Viviani and Caleb Ewan.

"After it was over, I was shocked at how many people enjoyed that," he said, before revealing his favorite road win of 2019.

"In terms of purely physical performance, the time trial and national time trial titles at the Criterium du Dauphiné stand out," he said, with both wins coming in June.

As for where he keeps his trophies, Van Aat joked: "I have a cupboard in our hall with four shelves. Three of them hold the cobblestone trophies won at the Koppenberg Cross, and in the other is a vase of flowers.