He should have known better, but Victor Campenaerts decided to go into the breakaway on
day fourteen of the Vuelta a España.
The 32-year-old Belgian of Lotto-Dstny had five strong men with him, but Visma | Lease a Bike didn't give them a chance in the service of Wout van Aert.
Campenaerts stated in a conversation with
HLN that he already knew the breakaway riders were doomed on Saturday. "Wout told me yesterday that they wanted to control and feared they wouldn't get any help. That turned out to be the case in the end. On the descent, we tried briefly from the early breakaway to put pressure on the peloton, but when we turned around and had two minutes, it was clear to me."
Read more below the photo.
Campenaerts has hope for Van Aert in final week
Visma | Lease a Bike used almost the entire team and thus kept Campenaerts and Co. within distance. "Gesink and Affini rode very well. The wattages they cranked for three hours were impressive. From next year, that will be my job," Vocsnor refers to his transfer to the Dutch team after this season. With that, he returned to the team, which he left for his current employer after 2017.
"I hadn't marked this stage beforehand," continued Campenaerts, who still sees chances for his type of rider on days seventeen and eighteen. In that case, however, he will have to bargain with his future team to have a chance of stage success, as he did in the Tour de France. "It will be even harder to avoid the sprint then. Maybe I should ask Wout to join me in the early breakaway... But then again, that's a tricky opponent to beat at the finish," he laughed.