Van Aert explains suffering on time trial bike and praises surprise performer Hoole: "Clearly making progress"

“This isn’t a great time trial to have bad legs,” Van Aert said with a smile after wiping the spit from his mouth and checking the intermediate and final times of the riders who had finished. “It didn’t go the way I wanted, and I struggled to find my rhythm right from the start. I suffered, and now that I see the split times, they match exactly how I felt. I could push through the pain, but not in a good way.”

Van Aert had gone all-out on Sunday to win the gravel stage to Siena, so he had already factored in the toll that effort might take. “I do think this has a lot to do with the effort from Sunday. I had hoped to recover better and did my best to make that happen. This morning I didn’t feel bad, but not fresh enough to smash through a wall. It just wasn’t there.”

Further reading below the video.

Because the gap to the earlier starters was quite large at the finish line, Van Aert was asked whether the wind might have changed in the second part of the time trial. “I did feel like there was more wind than during the recon, but that could’ve just been my legs too. I don’t know how it was for the others, so I don’t want to use that as an excuse. The riders who went before me were simply better today.”

Van Aert also had his own explanation for the weaker second half. “I knew I had to start fast to have a chance, I couldn’t afford to give anything away. I went out at a good pace, and on a good day, you can carry that through on the uphill sections. The climb itself wasn’t much, but if you want to ride over it at 40 or 50 km/h on a time trial bike, it gets tough. The legs just weren’t turning smoothly.”

Further reading below the video.

Since the weather in the second half of the time trial was expected to play a key role, it was clear even before the start that early starters might have a shot at the win. Daan Hoole from Lidl-Trek seized that opportunity with both hands and was in the hot seat early on. “The fact that Hoole beat Tarling can definitely be called a surprise,” said Van Aert. “But he was already strong in the first time trial and is clearly making progress, so that’s really well done.”

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])