"I can't justify what I did" - Heartbroken Wout van Aert takes full responsibility for Visma's disastrous defeat at Dwars door Vlaanderen

A brutally honest and disappointed Wout van Aert admitted his mistake and took full responsibility for Team Visma | Lease a Bike's defeat at Dwars door Vlaanderen today. It was one that will likely live on the memory of cycling fans for a long time, and an error of massive dimensions which the Belgians explains.

Until the final kilometers, Visma's race and tactics seemed perfect. They managed to nail positioning at the key point of the race into Berg ten Houte, leave the main rivals behind, and form a four-rider group in front with three of their own - and the strongest sprinter on paper in Van Aert. But in the final sprint, called on by van Aert mainly, he did not have the legs and lost to Neilson Powless to finish second, third and fourth on the day.

"Four with three guys of the team, we always make a mistake if we don't win the race. I'm fully responsible for this loss," van Aert said in a post-race interview. "It was me that made the call to go for a sprint, and I asked Matteo [Jorgenson] and Tiesj [Benoot] to just control in the final and bring me to the line. I was confident that I could win in the sprint, but in the sprint I cramped completely and Neilson Powless turned out to be stronger".

it was a defeat of massive dimensions, and the disappointment was very evident in Matteo Jorgenson right after the race who also spoke of a wrong decision. Van Aert knows that after this loss, it was necessary to own up to what was a decision largely taken by himself.

"It's a mistake because I was too selfish in the final. I wanted this victory so bad, specially after all the criticism I've been through and all the bad luck I've been through last year. I was thinking about myself, I just wanted no chance that we miss or that one of my teammates win this race and that's a huge mistake," he admits. "It's not who I am and that's why I'm extremely disappointed. I did it against what's my nature, it's not really me and I couldn't win if my teammates didn't bring me to the finish. If I didn't win it's my fault".

It was a tactic that on paper would've regularly worked, as the Belgian packs a strong sprint, but after two hours of all-out racing he simply did not have his best sprint within him, whilst Powless seemed to have. "I think I was also very convinced that I could win. It's my mistake, not theirs".

"At least if we would have attacked him we wouldn't have any regrets. That was the right tactic and we didn't take it seriously enough. I can't justify what I did," he concluded.