Enough about tactical blunders, how good is van Aert really? "Visma | Lease a Bike will race differently"

On Wednesday afternoon, the cycling world witnessed a blunder that is the talk of the town. Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, and Tiesj Benoot rode the entire final with Neilson Powless, but the trio from Visma | Lease a Bike failed to secure the victory after a great sprint by the American. From all directions, the Dutch team faced criticism, but after the discussion about blunders and wrong tactics, the question arises: how good is Wout van Aert really on his way to realizing his main goals?

Jan Bakelants, who knows Van Aert well, already had his say on HLN. "Wout definitely got beaten up. What happened in the sprint on Wednesday is not good. That was a very painful moment. I don't think he slept well. The best thing you can do in such a case is take a sleeping pill to calm down. Wout has to get over it. He can only move forward."

According to the Belgian analyst and former cyclist, "There are many good things to take away from Dwars door Vlaanderen. But does he want to? Can he do it? Fortunately, he is receiving much better support from his team. There are people there to look out for him and guide him. They help him to look at things from both sides. I think that makes him more receptive to the positive message. At Visma | Lease a Bike, they can make the dark clouds disappear."

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Powless beat the trio of Visma | Lease a Bike with a mighty sprint.

Bakelants sees Van Aert and Visma | Lease a Bike grow

According to Bakelants, four days between Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders on Sunday should be enough to take the disappointment away from van Aert. He needs to turn the page and focus on the good things. "If you look at the sporting facts, my conclusion is that the Tour of Flanders promises to be a lot more exciting after what happened on Wednesday. Hopefully, Wout can see that, too. Dwars door Vlaanderen was his best race since the Vuelta. It was the first time the team could impose its authority this spring."

But how will it work out on Sunday with Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar in the Tour of Flanders? "I see a declining curve for the lieutenants from the major competitive blocs," says Bakelants about the teammates at Alpecin-Deceuninck and UAE Team Emirates-XRG. "That contrast will be a factor on Sunday. I think this trend will continue. You don't necessarily have to believe that Van der Poel or Pogacar will be less good because I don't think that either, but if their team is a little less good, it will allow their opponents to at least try something."

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Mathieu van der Poel

Zonneveld a lot less positive about van Aert's form

Thijs Zonneveld also watched the E3 Saxo Classic and Dwars door Vlaanderen and came to a much less positive conclusion in the new podcast In De Waaier: "I thought van Aert was pretty okay during the race, but last year they came down the mountain in Tenerife and blew the whole peloton to pieces. In the E3, he may have seemed a little worse than he was, and in Dwars door Vlaanderen, he may have seemed a little better than he was. They rode away on a small climb with the team; it wasn't like van Aert crushed everyone."

"The van Aert, who rode away from everyone in Gent-Wevelgem and with Laporte put the peloton minutes behind, or the van Aert we witnessed in Kuurne, made us think: how strong is this guy? ... I still haven't seen that van Aert," says Zonneveld. "I thought Benoot was the strongest of them all. It's good that he's racing at the front, but he's not yet at the top of his game. This is far from the best van Aert; this version won't be able to keep up if van der Poel and Pogacar attack in the Tour of Flanders. They don't even assume that, but they will race differently."

"I miss that explosion that characterizes van Aert," is the conclusion. "His basic fitness is quite okay, but I don't see those last few percent in the red zone. That makes sense because he suffered a few hard knocks last year and fell behind in his training over the winter. So maybe those last few percent will come back, and it's all partly physical, partly positioning, and partly confidence. But those three things are not at their best, and it's just not good enough."

Read also

EF sports director after Powless beat van Aert: "They know Neilson well at Visma, they are familiar with all his data"

Visma | Lease a Bike saw a different Van Aert after Dwars door Vlaanderen crash, but tests and E3 proved that changing style is not an option

Roodhooft unfazed by competition in Tour of Flanders: "I don't care if they do"

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