"Expensive mistake" costs Wout van Aert victory in Seville: "Was a bit confused by the shadow"

On Wednesday, Wout van Aert took his fourth top-three finish in five stages at the Vuelta a Espana. The Belgian of Visma | Lease a Bike initially seemed to surprise big rival Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) with an early start but eventually saw Pavel Bittner (dsm-firmenich PostNL) pass him in Seville.

"It was a sprint at high speed," Van Aert analyzed afterward. "I expected a bit more headwind, but the speed was incredibly high. I did what I had planned: go into the wheel of Kaden. That was pretty early, and at one point, I felt someone coming, then unfortunately, I placed my jump a bit too early."

What caused that? "I saw some shadows and was a bit confused because of that. It's easier to make a mistake in the heat of the moment, but now, it has made a difference. So I would call it an expensive mistake," the Belgian leader said. Van Aert did finish ahead of Groves, so he managed to move up in the points classification.

Read more below the video.

Van Aert on battle with green and victory Bittner

The duel with Groves for the green jersey is progressing nicely for Van Aert so far. "We are the only ones competing in the intermediate sprints, so you can see from that that we are the only ones interested. So it's all about the details, but that's why it was a pity I couldn't win. First place would have given me a lot of extra points, so I'm not entirely satisfied yet."

That a youngster like Bittner won was, in a way, excellent for the Belgian. "Certainly. I couldn't congratulate him yet, but he performed very well. Pavel came with a lot of speed, and it was a nice duel in which he turned out to be the strongest. So he deserves this victory."