"Remco slowly got the better of me," van Aert analyzed, while reflecting on the sprint situation.
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Follow us on GoogleHe was beaten in Dwars door Vlaanderen, finished fourth after a sprint for second and third place in the Tour of Flanders, and missed the podium after a sprint in Paris-Roubaix. Wout van Aert has been praised for years for his fast sprint, but on Friday in the Brabantse Pijl, it let him down again this spring. Is there a problem? After the race, Van Aert explained that this was not necessarily the case.
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Looking back at the Brabantse Pijl on paper, one might wonder why van Aert failed to beat his compatriot Remco Evenepoel in a one-on-one sprint. But that wasn't the story of the race at all. “Of course, I hope to win, especially when you're riding to the finish line for a sprint in a situation like that. But I was exhausted. Remco slowly got the better of me in the race's final hour. It was already tough to keep up in the last lap, so he earned the victory,” he said honestly in the flash interview.
Van Aert and Evenepoel had already been on the road for a while, first with Joe Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech) and later just the two. It was a tough battle for a long time, but van Aert stayed behind Evenepoel in the final phase. “I'm not really that disappointed. We wanted more, but a sprint after a race like this is different. I didn't have a good sprint left, even though I would have liked to beat him.”
Read more below the video
Van Aert hoped for a miracle in sprint against Evenepoel
That didn't happen because he simply ran out of steam. Just like he did in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. "I hoped it would come to a complete standstill in the last kilometer so that it would be a more explosive sprint. But Remco kept pushing hard, which made it quite a long effort. This was all I could do. I noticed in the final lap that Remco was the stronger rider. He showed that in the sprint."
It was another sprint that Van Aert didn't win, resulting in another place of honor and no victory or top podium spot in a Monument. The always honest Van Aert said: "I felt good today and helped break open the race. I was surprised that there was such a large selection so early on and that such a small group formed at the front. It all looked promising."
Read more below the photo.
Evenepoel challenged van Aert
Van Aert has no clear answer to sprint situation
While laughing, Van Aert said, "It might have been better to finish in a large group because it was no walk in the park riding on Remco's wheel." However, this was an important part of the Brabantse Pijl sprint, and there was a lack of his normally impressive power in the sprint. “The only explanation for today is that I suffered enormously in the last kilometers and pushed myself beyond my limit in the sprint.
The explanation for all the other spring sprints had, of course, been sought for some time, but even after the Brabantse Pijl, van Aert was still unable to provide a clear answer. "I would love to be able to tell you why the sprint has been lacking a little this spring. It's not that we've been working on it differently; it's just not coming out in the races."
Bram van der PloegEditor-in-chief
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.
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