Wout van Aert happy to win the sprint for 11th after a difficult Dauphiné

Win the peloton sprint but finish eleventh: that is what happened to Wout van Aert on Wednesday at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Despite the result, he spoke to IDL Pro Cycling and others happily. The Belgian looked surprisingly content at the finish. The Visma star had his good legs back — and that alone, despite just missing out on catching the break, was enough to put a smile on his face.

A group of twelve riders went clear on Wednesday, and there were some serious names in the mix. Plenty of teams in the peloton had missed the move and a proper chase eventually got under way. Ultimately, the break held on just long enough, with Quinn Simmons taking the win.

Van Aert won the sprint of the peloton — and that in itself was a good sign, given that just a day earlier he had been dropped as early as nine kilometres into the team time trial. "Earlier than we expected," Visma | Lease a Bike had said at the time. A day on, having good legs is a very welcome discovery for the Paris-Roubaix winner.

"I think I won the sprint of the bunch. It wasn't for the victory, but it was just to stretch the legs a bit," Van Aert said, catching his breath after the finish. "I'm happy about today. It was a tough race on the way there and it's a shame we just couldn't catch them — but it's always nice to try."

Van Aert said he felt good in the finale. "I was also able to sprint well, but there were a few riders who stayed ahead. That's always frustrating, but we raced for it. I'm happy with that." In the end, it was the break that denied him a chance at victory.

How did he see the tactical picture unfold? "I think when the break got away, it was too big a group to control. Also because there were pairs of teammates in there. Cofidis started driving first and then it turned out that quite a lot of teams had missed the move. We went full gas to try, but it just wasn't quite enough. The real reason we didn't make it is that the breakaway was just too strong."

Visma | Lease a Bike had actually had a different plan from most teams, Van Aert noted. "What I was hoping for was that we could let a small group go today. I think we were the only ones with that plan, so we had to switch quickly. It was actually a surprise — when that strong group went away and so many teams had missed it and then wanted to start chasing."

And so the Dutch squad threw themselves into the pursuit. "We definitely played our part. In the end everyone on the team gave absolutely everything, but it just wasn't quite enough."

Visma had complete faith in Van Aert throughout. "This morning in the team meeting I asked them, with a bit of a nervous heart, to trust me. Straight away I felt like they were fully behind me. You feel a little better when those guys believe in you."

And so a fairly content Van Aert stood talking to the press. "It's simple: when it's not your day or when your performance isn't good, it's never fun or easy to come and explain that. I always try to do it anyway. You can tell it's more fun to do an interview now," he said with a grin.

He rounded off with warm words for his teammates. "We didn't even need to prove again today that this team is doing something special. Yesterday was the example — I was dropped early and Ben [Tulett] had a puncture, but the team still went on to win the team time trial. That was pretty insane. When you have those guys working for you, you really want to give everything. I did that today — I just came up a little short."

Author: Gauthier Ribeiro