“For me, that crash was decisive" - Wout van Aert laments Paterberg slip as Mathieu van der Poel claims E3 Saxo Classic victory

Wout van Aert was unable to make it a hat-trick at the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday afternoon. Playing a big role in his eventual third-placed finish however, was a crash for the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader on the Paterberg.

“I wanted to jump onto the cobblestones, from the gutter, to gain some positions, but I got stuck behind the edge,” he explains of his crash post-race. “I now have pain in my elbow and hip, my right side is also quite stiff. I'll have to get that checked. I have some pain now, but that often happens shortly after exertion.”

“For me, that crash was decisive for the rest of the race," lamented the 29-year-old Belgian. Despite the crash seemingly a potentially race-ending incident though, van Aert did fight back and made it as close to around 15 seconds from eventual race winner, Mathieu van der Poel before fading back and seeing the timegap build up again.

According to van Aert himself, the immense effort it took to get back to the front after the crash eventually proved fatal for his race-winning hopes. "It took a lot of strength to fight back after that," he explains. "I ended up alone behind Mathieu, it seemed to be fairly even for a while, but I couldn't get much closer. I thought for a moment that I would still be able to close the gap, but when that didn't work after the Karnemelkbeekstraat, it was difficult to maintain my pace after that. At the end I was at my limit."

Being joined by Lidl-Trek's Jasper Stuyven, van Aert barely even fought his compatriot in the sprint for second. "I was KO in the sprint, I was happy that I could have been in the wheel of Jasper for a while," he says of the finale. “I am satisfied, given the circumstances this was the highest achievable. The crash was not ideal for winning the race. Mathieu was strong, as we expected. It was going to be difficult to do anything about it.”