Van Aert's sprint win even more impressive in light of his crash: 'We need to keep an eye on it'

Wout van Aert won the bunch sprint at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in dominant fashion on Thursday. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider had crashed in training in the build-up to the French WorldTour race, and that crash is still making itself felt — as his words after the stage made clear.

Immediately after the finish, Van Aert had already acknowledged that Thursday had again been a tough day, despite the victory — though slightly easier than the previous days. "Winning is always nice and especially in a big race like this. It was a difficult start and it was even difficult mentally today. It was painful after the crash I had just before this race," the Belgian said.

The Belgian knew the stage had suited his current condition better. "That matched my form a little better. It was a tough start and even in this stage it was mentally difficult." The reason? His pre-race training crash was still playing a role. As is well known, Van Aert fell in training in the week before the race — and it is clearly still bothering him more than he had let on.

He returned to the subject in the post-stage press conference, which IDL Pro Cycling attended. "Definitely not ideal," Van Aert said of the crash. "Six days before the start... The last few days at home were painful and training was tough. It is what it is and you always have to adapt," the Belgian said, keeping his fighting spirit intact.

Because it was the elbow that troubled him again on Thursday. "That's right. Today it hurt more than other days," Van Aert admitted — with three more brutal mountain stages still to come in the French stage race. "We need to keep an eye on it. Hopefully it's heading in the right direction."

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]