Belgian analysts in disbelief after Dwars door Vlaanderen: "The last 100 meters ruined a lot"

There, they saw Visma | Lease a Bike behaving foolishly, but Wim Vos of Het Nieuwsblad could not help but sympathize with the hard workers of the Dutch team. "On other days, we criticize them mercilessly. Clumsy, stupid, take your pick. Today, we are more forgiving. Partly because we still took our hats off to Van Aert and the entire Visma-Lease a Bike team just a hundred meters from the finish line. Poor performance in the E3, improvement in Gent-Wevelgem, but now, until those final meters, outstanding as a team."

So close to the Tour of Flanders, Wednesday's race should have boosted confidence. "And to top it all off, Visma-Lease a Bike only had themselves to blame. After the finish, Benoot said it in so many words: how could the team have lost the race because they trusted Van Aert (and his sprint) so much? It would have been much better to have targeted Powless with the three of them in the final phase. Attacking, wearing him down, and thus pulling the rug from under him, maybe not with Van Aert, but with Jorgenson or Benoot. Visma-Lease a Bike did not do that. It put all its eggs in one basket. They will not make that mistake again anytime soon."

The Tour of Flanders is imminent, and the run-up was not what it should have been. "The pessimists will point to the results. If you can't beat Powless in Waregem after an 184-kilometer race, how will you ever beat Pogacar or Van der Poel after 268 much tougher kilometers in Oudenaarde? Or, again, if you're too soft on the hills on Friday and too soft in the sprint on Wednesday, should you still count Van Aert among the top favorites? And what about this new mental challenge?"

But look at the rest of the race, and you will see a different story, says Vos. "If Visma-Lease a Bike wants to win the Tour on Sunday, they must do it exactly like today. By making maximum use of their collective strength. Of super lieutenant Benoot, lightning rod Baarle, and fellow leader Jorgenson. The yellow-and-black block versus the sometimes otherworldly individual class of Pogacar and Van der Poel. It is the only chance, a golden opportunity, that Van Aert has on Sunday."

Karl Vannieuwkerke and José De Cauwer also analyzed Wednesday's classic. They saw a very strong Visma | Lease a Bike that refused to reward itself. "The race went 99.9% perfectly for them. They rode a hard race, they got away where they wanted to get away, ... And those last 100 meters ... ruined a lot. Mentally, that is," De Cauwer states in his analysis.

The mental blow is especially hard with Sunday in sight. Van Aert and Visma | Lease a Bike have rarely been in a worse position than in this edition. But De Cauwer thinks they will have already forgotten the loss by then. "They still have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. All that still has to come together. And it wasn't the Tour of Flanders either. But the only thing that will change because of this is that the Visma | Lease a Bike team will think: we're going for yellow."

"So the focus shouldn't all be on Van Aert, but on trying to win as a team," Vannieuwkerke adds. "Like they should have done today." Afterward, Van Aert said that the criticism in recent weeks had hurt him a lot and influenced his course. "That wasn't a criticism. That was just an observation. I also think that 99.9% of the top riders would have done the same. I don't think he's to blame in that respect," says De Cauwer.

Vannieuwkerke saw that observation, which was confirmed on Wednesday. "Because the very best Wout van Aert would have won. Just as Tom Boonen was not at his best in that Omloop with Stannard'. Ian Stannard won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2015 after a similar three-on-one battle. The British rider took advantage of the Quick-Step trio (Tom Boonen, Niki Terpstra, and Stijn Vandenbergh) blundering and managed to win against all odds."

According to De Cauwer, Visma | Lease a Bike should focus on the positive. But winning the Tour of Flanders will be very difficult. "This race could have given them a boost. That confidence is not completely gone. They worked hard to get him ready. Was it good enough? Only Van Aert knows that when he looks in the mirror." Nevertheless, Van Aert can triumph in Oudenaarde. "Bettiol won the Tour of Flanders, and Asgreen beat Van der Poel, which was also something that could not happen. Never say never. But are the odds in his favor? No."