What does Van Aert's sprint win mean for the Tour? “We need to balance Jonas and Wout”

It had been a while, but Wout van Aert won a bunch sprint on Thursday at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The Belgian from Visma | Lease a Bike won in convincing fashion, and that is a welcome boost ahead of what is still to come. But what does this victory mean for the Tour de France? Sports director Maarten Wynants and Van Aert himself both gave their answer.

After already winning the sprint from the peloton a day earlier, Van Aert truly struck on Thursday. “He had already shown yesterday that he was fast,” Wynants explained to IDL ProCycling and others. Still, getting to a sprint required a serious amount of work. “We had to ride very hard behind that breakaway again.”

In the end, the Dutch team were still able to save Per Strand Hagenes and Edoardo Affini for the final, and both riders played their part extremely well. “When they were riding on the front, I did have the feeling: it is going to be difficult to get past them here. The wind was also coming from the left at the front, so they would have had to come past twice, in a way.”

So, Maarten, what was the final verdict on the sprint itself? “Textbook, wasn’t it, those final three kilometers.” And so Van Aert ultimately came out on top near the bird park in Villard-les-Dombes. Has the Belgian now truly clicked into gear? “Not just like that, but this is definitely a confidence boost. Yesterday was already a confidence boost, and today is a double bonus on top of that.”

A double bonus is always welcome on the road to the Tour, of course. But what does this victory actually mean for the Tour de France? Will we see Van Aert contesting bunch sprints there again? “It is a bit of a wait-and-see situation,” Wynants said, adding some caution. “Above all, we need to find the balance with Jonas and Wout. If the two do not get in each other’s way, then it can certainly happen.”

Van Aert has contested sprints at the Tour de France before. “In the past, when we did that, we usually tried it from more reduced groups, and then tried to win the sprint from there.” Could that be the plan again this year? “It is still too early to draw conclusions about whether he would go for the flat sprints.”

Because, as Wynants knows: “With all due respect to the riders who are here, different calibers will be added there, riders who are intrinsically much faster.” So the win should mainly be viewed as a confidence boost, according to the sports director. “Towards the hard work later on and towards the Tour. Different plans will have to be made there.”

And what about Van Aert himself? He also returned to that question in the press conference. “In a peloton like this, I enjoy taking my chances. In the Tour, with all the sprinters and lead-outs, I don’t think I have much chance of beating guys like Merlier and Philipsen. I also do not really want to take the risk for that. I have a good sprint, but at high speeds it is not the same.”

To be continued.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]