"In the past I would always go full gas, but I need to think about it now"; what will Wout van Aert do in the Tour de France time trial?

The Dutch team took control in the approach to the final. “But let’s not exaggerate,” said Tiesj Benoot. “We wanted to be at the front, and Victor Campenaerts did a good job. Then we didn’t want to set too high a pace on the climb, but Jhonatan Narváez (from UAE) did, and then I knew Tadej Pogacar was going to attack.”

Van Aert was well positioned when Campenaerts stretched out the peloton, but he just couldn’t follow on the climb. “We would have liked Wout van Aert to be there too, but he had to let go of that group with Grégoire in the final meters,” said Grischa Niermann. “Wout was good, but just came up short.”

“I was good, but not exceptional enough,” were the first words from the Belgian himself, who had to drop very early in stage two. “I just had to let go on that last climb, but it’s a step forward. Pogacar and Vingegaard were still ahead of that group, so you know it’s not going to slow down.”

“Everyone was completely broken at the top, so I already knew I wouldn’t be able to come back,” Van Aert explained. “But with Matteo and Jonas up front, it was still a good day for us as a team.” “Jonas is in great shape, so this was a good day,” agreed Benoot. “Wout is getting better every day. We finished with all the GC riders, so that’s a step in the right direction.”

Wednesday brings an individual time trial of 33 kilometers in Caen, but what can we expect from Van Aert? “You’ll see tomorrow what he does in the time trial. Whether he goes hard or not won’t make the difference,” said Niermann.

“I still need to think about it, because there are two more tough days coming after,” Van Aert added himself. “In the past, I would always go full gas in a time trial, but I have to be realistic – I’m not going to beat Remco anyway. But we’ll see what happens.” “For me, it’s basically a half rest day,” laughed Benoot.