“I had the best cyclist in the world in front of me,” says Jonas Vingegaard after the eighteenth Tour stage, which he won himself. But the Dane likes to talk about his teammate Wout van Aert, who has just delivered hard work of the outdoor category on the Hautacam. On the steep Pyrenees climb, the Belgian drives up so fast that competitor Tadej Pogacar cannot keep up with the pace. It is the preliminary decision in the battle for the yellow jersey, in which Van Aert played an important role in his green jersey.
If a classification for most complete rider is drawn up in cycling races in the coming years, Van Aert will be the top favorite in advance. Sprinting, time trialling, climbing, the Belgian can compete with the best in all disciplines of cycling. Should he close a gap to a leading group to get into sprint position himself, or protect his leader Vingegaard in a difficult final – he does it all with apparent ease this Tour.
Also read:This Tour was from Jumbo-Visma
Unpredictable course
The first week of the Tour de France also seems made for him. Stages with an unpredictable course make Van Aert a favorite for almost every stage. During the opening time trial in Copenhagen, partly because the wet course dries up after him, he still has to recognize his superior in Yves Lampaert. After stage two, he can still wear the yellow jersey, because he is second behind Fabio Jakobsen in a bunch sprint. A ride later he is second again, this time behind Dylan Groenewegen.
Those second places sting him, winner as he is, even if he is in yellow. But he also knows: there are still plenty of opportunities. If the road climbs steeply for a few miles, it is in a league of its own in its current form.
Stage four has such a nasty climb, a stretch of a few hundred meters, about twenty-five kilometers from the finish. An ideal place for Van Aert to start, there he kicks harder than anyone else. No one can follow him, and when he is free from the pack, he kicks even harder. He is a one-man train on its way to the finish in Calais.
In stage eight, to Lausanne, Switzerland, all sprinters have already dropped out for the vicious final climb. A small peloton leads the way, with Van Aert of course. He can easily follow Pogacar’s pace. At 150 meters before the finish comes the power explosion, his legs have been waiting for this for miles.
The long solo breakaways, in which his thighs push the bike forward, and the win after a sprint are well-known qualities of the Belgian. Especially in mountain stages, he shows himself in France this year even more than expected. In almost every stage where Jumbo-Visma would like to have a man in the leading group this Tour, Van Aert is the right man. Not infrequently, he himself is the rider who sprints away first. Other riders shake their heads: now they have to go after the green jersey to get into the leading group.
“Wout van Aert reaches another dimension in cycling,” said Tour director Christian Prudhomme. In a Tour de France in which his team dominates, Van Aert is the most important face. The Tour organization of the tour will reward him with the prize of the most combative rider of this edition.
lesser day
Everyone, including the competition, thinks: Van Aert must also have a bad day. But even then he is of value to his team. In stage 19 his legs don’t feel good enough. The finish suits him, he knows that, but his teammate Christophe Laporte also has opportunities. Only during the ride does Jumbo-Visma decide, on the advice of Van Aert, to play the Laporte card. The Frenchman wins. “Wout shows that he is a great champion by saying that he still had pain in his legs,” says sports director Grischa Niermann. A day later, Van Aert himself booked his third stage victory in the individual time trial over 40 kilometers.
Now that Van Aert is increasingly proving himself as a complete rider, there are votes in Belgium whether he can also just win a Tour, if the team is completely tuned to him. Van Aert himself is not involved in this. He wants to continue to combine his qualities, wants to be able to sprint freely when a stage suits him. “People should be happy with how things are going,” he said at Sporza.
First of all, he is happy himself. In the last stage, which is won by his compatriot Jasper Philipsen, Van Aert no longer sprints for the victory. Even his body is gone in Paris – the loot was already inside, besides.