The green jersey that Wout van Aert was allowed to wear after the eleventh stage in the Tour de France quickly got a new owner on Wednesday. The Belgian from Jumbo-Visma handed over the jersey to an English cycling fan who came to his aid with a flat tire in the descent towards the team bus.
After the tough Alps stage with finish on the Col du Granon, Van Aert descended towards the Jumbo-Visma bus, but on the way he turned out to have an idler. A spectator immediately came to the rescue and offered a bicycle pump.
Images on social media show how Van Aert gives a special souvenir to the helpful fan as a thank you. “I have something for you: take off my green sweater, it’s for you.” The man will not let that be said twice and praises Van Aert as “a legend.”
Van Aert later responded to the incident from the hotel. “A small mechanical problem in the descent of the Col du Granon”, he writes Twitter† “Luckily my Vittoria tubeless tire did the job. I traded my green jersey for some ‘life-saving’ air. Today was a good day.”
With that good day, Van Aert was referring to the double hit by his teammate Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane rode out of the yellow jersey on the final climb Tadej Pogacar. In the run-up to the final climb, Van Aert made sure that the gap with leader Warren Barguil became much smaller.