Aggressive performance gives Wout van Aert a "lot of confidence for the upcoming races"

Wout van Aert was a headliner at the BEMER Cyclassics, and he made the race's decisive moved, shaped the outcome of the race. Whilst Marco Haller took the win, the Belgian showed good form ahead of his next goals.

"We had the plan to make the race hard. Because of the loss of Christophe [Laporte], Tosh [van der Sande] and Jos [van Emden], we had to race differently," van Aert said posteriorly to the crash that marked the race late on in the day that split the peloton. "After Nathan van Hooydonck's hard work on the final hill, I attacked, which created a favourable situation. Christophe would have been there too, if he hadn't had bad luck. Nevertheless, the situation at the end wasn't bad at all".

Despite the lack of teammates around, van Aert took the race into his own hands, attacking in the final ascent of the Waseberg in the final 15 kilometers and creating the decisive 15-rider group. The quintet went on to fight for the finish, in a small group sprint.

"Marco attacked early, which surprised me. I looked the wrong way for a moment and couldn't correct the gap that Marco had created with his powerful jump," he described. "My top speed was good, but I was too late. That's a shame, but it can happen". Van Aert ended up in second place, one however that was relatively disappointing after having a favourable position.

"I felt good today. Right after the Tour, I had a light flu. After a week or two, I could resume the training. Since then, everything has been going smoothly. I came close to winning today, so my second-place finish is frustrating. But it is also a sign that the form is good. That gives a lot of confidence for the upcoming races," he concluded.

Van Aert is aiming towards the World championships, and will also have the Bretagne Classic and the Canadian classics on his schedule towards Australia.