Wout van Aert finally reveals Tour de France goals, but makes sacrifices for Visma's bigger goals

This year, Van Aert has already raced most of the Classics and the Giro d’Italia, but physically and mentally he doesn’t seem worn out yet. Sitting next to him, Simon Yates showed more signs of mental fatigue after the Giro d’Italia.

Still, Van Aert couldn’t speak of a perfect preparation for the Tour, having to miss the Belgian Championships due to illness. “I feel healthy again. It was just a small setback at a really bad moment. The night before the Belgian Championships I got sick, and on Sunday I couldn’t eat, but it was just a stomach virus and by Monday I was feeling better again.”

“I hope it won’t affect my performance. I don’t feel as good as I did last week yet, but I’ve recovered, and I hope it won’t have an impact during the race,” said the Belgian, whose personal goals mainly lie in the first week and a half. “It will be difficult to do it on my own. The general classification with Jonas is the top priority, but the stages that suit me are also important for Jonas to be up front.”

Due to Visma | Lease a Bike’s focus on the GC, Van Aert is setting aside other potential ambitions, he explained. “I’m not thinking about the green jersey. It’s hard to score points in the flat sprints, and it’s also difficult to combine it with the GC focus. Going for green takes a lot of work every day. I’ve already won it once, and I enjoyed that, but now I’m focusing on stage wins.”

Van Aert will have to make some concessions in the flat sprints and possibly even the time trial, he explained. “It depends. My chances are bigger in the more punchy stages. Some days will feel like Classics, with many tricky finishes in that first week. That suits a rider like me. It is different compared to previous years, where there was often a tough mountain stage at the start. But the mindset is the same because we always start the Tour with the same goal,” he said, referring to Vingegaard’s general classification ambitions.

Last year, Van Aert showed in the Vuelta that he can perform excellently in his second grand tour in a row. Now, after the Giro, he starts the Tour. “I asked to do two grand tours, so hopefully it works out as well as it did in last year’s Vuelta. We’ll see, because you can’t just get legs like that on command.”