Van Aert fights hard on the Mur de Bretagne, but Nys struggles in very different way: "I can’t get past this"

Van Aert was active right from the start. After leaving Saint-Malo, he tried multiple times to slip away, but the peloton gave him no room. When five riders finally managed to break free, the 30-year-old cyclo-cross star wasn’t among them. “I wanted to be in the break again,” he said after the finish in a flash interview. “Before the stage, I thought only UAE would chase the break for a stage win. But I quickly saw Alpecin also started helping. That made it difficult for us to get into the break.”

That wasn’t the last we saw of Van Aert. He survived the first climb up the Mur de Bretagne and attacked again, but UAE Team Emirates-XRG didn’t let him go. “We gave it another go, but then had to switch to our final plan to make the race hard. That worked out well for Jonas, of course.” Vingegaard ended up finishing second behind stage winner Tadej Pogacar.

While Van Aert is improving, it’s a different story for Thibau Nys. The Tour rookie is feeling crushed that he can’t perform better. He finished only 94th today, almost ten minutes behind the winner. Normally, the 22-year-old classics specialist would be a protected rider for his team on this type of finish, but right now that’s out of the question. “I suffered so much,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws after the finish.

Since his nasty crash in stage one, this Tour has been a disaster for the young Belgian. His best result so far is 53rd place into Rouen. He hadn’t put much pressure on himself beforehand, but after yet another disappointing day, he’s completely lost his motivation. “It’s such a shame I couldn’t do anything for the team. I don’t know what went wrong. It’s really disappointing. I was dropped today. I just can’t get past this.”