Wout van Aert nowhere near victory after two setbacks: "I couldn’t recover from that"

For the second day in a row, a Belgian celebrated victory in the Tour of the Algarve—and for the second day in a row, it wasn’t Van Aert. The Visma | Lease a Bike leader finished seventh in Faro on Saturday, the same position he had occupied 24 hours earlier in Tavira. After the race, he shared his thoughts with IDLProCycling.com and other media.

Van Aert had set his sights on Stage 4 of the Volta ao Algarve, which included the Alto de Malhão climb. His Visma | Lease a Bike team also had high expectations, believing the stage would be harder than it turned out to be. Still, it wasn’t for lack of effort—the yellow-and-black squad pushed the pace on the few climbs, trying to shake things up.

Loe van Belle set the pace all day, while Wilco Kelderman, Sepp Kuss, Ben Tulett, Tiesj Benoot, and even Jonas Vingegaard (who later suffered a flat tire) worked to position Van Aert. However, most of the sprinters managed to return to the front before the race reached the final stretch in Faro.

"I actually felt really good. The race was less difficult than I expected, but we still tried to make the sprinters suffer. I expected more of a battle, but in the end, a small breakaway got away. They built up a big lead, and we were the first to take control. That was the right strategy, and as a team, we rode well—but unfortunately, I couldn’t finish it off," the Belgian explained.

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Van Aert lost momentum twice

In the final kilometer, Wout van Aert had to come from relatively far back and was forced to hold back twice—once for Alberto Dainese and once for Milan Fretin—effectively ending his chances. "It just wasn’t in the cards today," were the Belgian's first words after crossing the finish line. When asked about the sprint of the day's winner, Van Aert didn’t hold back. "Did I see him go? I even felt it, haha. That’s impressive—his second win already. Chapeau to him. I’m not the fastest Belgian today," he said with a grin.

"I actually think I was in a good position coming out of the corner," he continued. "But when the lead-outs peeled off, a gap opened up. That made it a long sprint for me, and I also lost my momentum twice. After the second time, I just couldn’t recover on an uphill finish like that," he explained when asked if he had indeed been "held up" during the sprint.

The final stage of the Volta ao Algarve will be a time trial on Sunday. Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Arthur van Dongen gave his thoughts: "It’s really difficult to predict what we can expect. The first 2.5 kilometers are extremely steep, and we don’t think Wout will be able to compete for the win."

"We’re treating it as a good final high-intensity effort, a chance to go deep one more time ahead of Opening Weekend," the team added. "Wout will go all out, but we’re not setting any expectations like a top five or top ten finish. That wouldn’t make sense."

Read also

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