Former pro offers key advice to van Aert in his hunt for wins: "He just doesn't seem to have the friends he needs in the peloton"

"For me, he's like a little outsider," Blythe said after the Brabantse Pijl, the race where van Aert lost the sprint to Remco Evenepoel. "He just doesn't seem to have the friends he needs in the peloton. He's respected, but for me, he hasn't got that camaraderie with the other riders that you kind of need in a way."

"From my experience of bike racing, if you're in a break - which granted, I wasn't in many breakaways - but the ones that I were in heading into the finish, you'll be able to chat to other riders, you'll be able to talk to them," he adds. "When you see the strong bonds other top riders have with each other, such as Van der Poel and Pogacar, you just don't see that with Van Aert."

If it were up to the former pro, Van Aert would need to work on repairing his relationships in the peloton. "So just on my side of things, I'd like to see him, and it's a ridiculous way of putting it, but more of the lads thing within it a little bit more," Blythe continues, offering up some advice to the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader. "They're more against him than wanting to ride with him."

"It's like there are three brothers, there's Wout, Van der Poel and Tadej," adds Luke Durbridge. "There are two brothers ganging up on one. When they get out there, I even find it amazing with Tadej and Van der Poel, they literally are mates, but then they're beating each other up, but then afterwards it's like, 'Bro, we're family."