"Finally now, I start to believe in this amazing stat" - Wout Van Aert jokes missing out on Omloop Het Nieuwsblad victory bodes well for Tour of Flanders

Wout van Aert was at the fore of almost everything important at the 2024 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, eventually coming home in third place, with teammate, Jan Tratnik completing the podium.

Famously, the winner of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad struggles at the Tour of Flanders and this was giving van Aert reason to smile post-race. "Finally now, I start to believe in this amazing stat," he laughed in conversation with Eurosport. "If I'd won I would be really eager to show the opposite but yeah, now hopefully it's right!"

For a while, things looked very good for a van Aert triumph at Omloop. Team Visma | Lease a Bike having three riders in a select group of six that seemingly had victory in their pocket before a frantic chase from the peloton eventually brought things back in the closing stages. "There was no panic," van Aert insists. "Because either way were at an advantage and we still had a lot of numbers in this first group so I think we really switched quickly to a new plan and started to attack again."

"For me, this makes me the most proud, that we were able to understand each other so well during the race," van Aert continues before concluding full of praise for his teammate, Tratnik. "He went at the right moment as it was really difficult to control it. Also with guys like Arnaud De Lie I was not 100% going to win a bunch sprint so it was the best tactic we had to keep riding offensively."