Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) expressed his disappointment at lacking out on the stage 18 victory on the Tour de France the place he completed ninth on the day after being half of a giant breakaway on the roads to Barcelonnette.
The Belgian stated that whereas he felt like a marked rider among the many 37-man breakaway, he refused to make use of that as an excuse and was merely not in a position to reply when Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) attacked over the past ascent of the day, Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées, with Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) and eventual stage 18 winner Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny).
“It’s a disgrace apparently everyone is aware of my quantity… No, It can be actually foolish to level that out as an excuse,” stated Van Aert with fun. “I do know it is onerous to win from the break for everybody, and I’ve to say when Kwiatkowski went, he was robust, and I used to be form of on the restrict on the highest of the KOM.
“But yeah, it is a disgrace that afterwards, it was really the primary second of the race once I thought, ‘Now I’ve to gamble a bit.’ We had been into probably the most straightforward a part of the stage. So, I stated to Bart [Lemmen] to leap with the counterattacks, and I used to be sitting a bit within the again and got here down the descent, and all the pieces was over.”
The breakaway break up after the ultimate climb with about 35km remaining after an preliminary assault by Kwiatkowski. Campenaerts and Vercher bridged throughout to the Ineos Grenadiers rider, and the trio succeeded to the end line, 22 seconds forward of a chase-group dash of six gained by Toms Skujiņš (Lidl-Trek).
Van Aert gained the third dash on the street for ninth place at 37 seconds again, as soon as once more lacking out on victory. Although he has not secured a stage win, he has had two second-place finishes and 4 high sixes at this Tour de France.
His final stage win got here on the 2022 Tour when he gained the stage 20 time trial forward of teammate Jonas Vingegaard into Rocamadour. He’ll have to attend one other 12 months so as to add to his 9 Tour stage wins, with the trio of remaining phases all for the GC riders.
He stated that he had been happy along with his kind, notably approaching the Olympic Games and that he’s not trying to the stage 21 time trial on the Tour de France.
“[I’m] pleased. It’s actually progressing in path, and particularly as we speak, I felt actually good,” he stated.
“The focus just isn’t actually on the time trial. The Olympic Games are developing quickly. Sunday is not going to be an actual relaxation day, however one with an eye fixed on subsequent week.”
Van Aert and Remco Evenepoel will compete for Belgium within the elite males’s time trial on July 27 on the Olympic Games. He will then lead a robust Belgian squad alongside Evenepoel, Tiesj Benoot and Jasper Stuyven for help within the elite males’s street race on August 3.
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