Visma-Lease a Bike might hardly have had extra blended emotions after stage 2 of the Vuelta a España as Wout van Aert secured the general lead, however the squad concurrently needed to remorse Dylan van Baarle turning into the primary rider of the race to desert.
Van Baarle had barely crossed the road on Saturday in Lisbon, ending simply two seconds behind winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), earlier than he declared that there was “every little thing to play for” within the battle for the general lead.
The Belgian duly pushed laborious for the bonus seconds each within the intermediate dash and on the rugged stage 2 finale. While he simply missed out on the seconds on supply at Acobaca with 50 kilometres to go, Van Aert lastly acquired the bonus he wanted on the end in Ourém, the place he took second place behind Kaden Groves (Deceuninck-Alpecin).
The six seconds Van Aert took there have been greater than sufficient to maneuver Van Aert previous Brandon McNulty and into purple for his second Grand Tour lead after a 4 day spell within the Tour de France first week in 2021.
“Of course I wished to win this stage, my group did a very good job to combat for a bunch dash, so it’s unlucky that I acquired second. But immediately I knew that ending within the first three meant the purple jersey, so in any case it is a good day,” Van Aert mentioned.
Riding his first ever Vuelta, Van Aert was adamant that he wouldn’t swap the chief’s jersey for a stage win. “This week was my finest likelihood to take the purple, and there are many alternatives additional on for levels. I’ve already tried twice for a stage right here in two days, and I’ll attempt once more,” he mentioned. “It was a profession purpose of mine to get the Vuelta lead, and I’m very proud to be sporting it.”
The dash itself was something however easy, with a late crash all however splintering the peloton on the technical, twisting end. Van Aert got here near success, however Groves proved the quickest. “I knew beforehand that Kaden is absolutely quick,” Van Aert mentioned. “Edoardo Affini gave me a very good lead out, however Kaden got here previous me at pace and he absolutely deserves the win.”
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Van Aert didn’t rule out attempting to go for a stage win as quickly as Monday in Castelo Branco, virtually equally as rugged a end as on Sunday. But after profitable the factors classification within the Tour a number of years again, he’s additionally pushing for the maillot a puntos within the Vuelta. Although Groves is at present forward in that competitors by seven factors, Van Aert is shut behind.
Van Aert mentioned he had few expectations that he would be capable to hold the race chief’s purple jersey, nevertheless, past stage 4’s first summit end of the race, at Pico Villuercas.
Van Baarle
Even as Van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike have been celebrating, although, they have been preserving greater than half a watch on updates concerning Dylan van Baarle, who crashed mid-way via the stage with what race docs known as ‘a number of traumatism’ and needed to abandon with 49 kilometres to go.
Van Baarle’s newest DNF compounds an already very tough yr for the previous Dutch nationwide champion. He was unable to race the Tour de France after he deserted injured in a foul crash within the Criterium du Dauphiné, and earlier than that he couldn’t participate in Paris-Roubaix, which he received in 2022, due to illness.
Part of Kuss’ profitable Vuelta group final yr, Van Baarle was anticipated to play a key assist function once more for the American in 2024, in addition to working within the lead-outs for Van Aert.
“It’s a giant blow to begin the Vuelta with,” Affini instructed reporters on the end line. “Dylan is an distinctive rider and we are going to miss him for positive.”
Affini was assured that Kuss would be capable to carry out at his finest with out Van Baarle’s assist. “When it involves the climbs it’s as much as Sepp. At that second it’s his legs that can do the speaking. But throughout the entire race, and tactics-wise, it’s going to be one thing now we have to consider.”
Speaking earlier than the beginning of the stage, Kuss described his opening time trial as “kind of what he anticipated,” though he admitted that he had struggled a little bit in opposition to the strongly gusting crosswinds. Kuss completed 63rd at 53 seconds on stage 1, 37 seconds down on key reference level Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) – not an enormous hole, however maybe greater than he would really like.
“I believe it was a little bit bit much less easy than I anticipated, with the wind, it was form of laborious to maintain the bike going, however the feeling was okay for the primary day of a Grand Tour and energy and every little thing was good. So it was an honest sufficient begin,” Kuss mentioned.
The race in any case has no clear patron as but – it’s far too quickly for that – and, as Kuss identified, the extent of the sphere was a really deep one. “Almost each group has two or three choices, and that makes it much more open,” he mentioned.
“We’ll see a bit extra who’s the place within the subsequent mountain levels, and undoubtedly we’ll know extra by the tip of the primary week. Bora, UAE, Trek – there are such a lot of sturdy groups, it’s the final Grand Tour of the season, too. So all people put all their eggs in a single basket and that makes it even more durable.”
Although Kuss has misplaced Van Baarle as group assist, Van Aert made it clear that for all he has his personal targets within the Vuelta, certainly one of his high priorities is making certain the American is able to defend the general title he received in 2023.
“My predominant objectives any more, in any case, are to gather factors for inexperienced, win a stage and be as a lot assist as I can for Sepp,” Van Aert mentioned.
“We’re assured that he can do it [win overall] once more, however we’ll need to see. It’s manner too early to say a lot about that. Stage 4 might be the place we’ll begin seeing the variations between the GC guys.”
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