"I can't justify what I did" - Heartbroken Wout van Aert takes full responsibility for Visma's disastrous defeat at Dwars door Vlaanderen
Cycling
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".
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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.
Wout van Aert for Eurosport: "I'm fully responsible for this loss because it was me who made the call to go for a sprint. I was too selfish in the finale. In the sprint, I cramped completely."
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) April 2, 2025
Kudos to Wout for taking responsability.👍#DDV25 pic.twitter.com/ByGIFluTWs
Pride and overconfidence strike again. Come on Wout! What a bonehead. They had a royal flush in spades and folded the hand. He knows he’s not in his best form after recovering from all the injuries. These are not normal circumstances for a sprint. They should have played tactics and put Powless to the sword by individually attacking thus wearing him out to cover all the attacks. If they wore him out wout MAY have won. It’s sad to see a guy go from insane pride to whimpering dog like that. Yes Wout is under immense pressure, so make some wise and shrewd decisions buddy! Standing there on the podium in 2 or 3 spot he always has the look of a sourpuss sore loser. Show some class buddy! Better success next time
Having to shoulder too much pressure from the Belgain public too much that he made a tactical mistake. That's what public pressure does to you. Poor Wout! Hopefully, lady luck befalls him soon.
Not only the public, just about every analyst and commentator had been piling it on. Under the circumstances I’d even say he’s showing real character. Not sure likeable Tadej would manage as well during a longer rough patch.
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- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- If I remember well, Pidcock slowed, whether out of respect or strategically or just happy he could ease off a bit, only he knows. Your point?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I believe Mathieu rather gets beaten by a stronger rider than one who raced smarter. That is why he wanted to team up with Pogacar to drop the JV riders and Mads who were not helping in the chase of the first group since they had a teammate up front.JoostMehrtens08-04-2025
- Just shows that LA is not truly repentant. JUSTICE was served. No winner, no second , no third on the podium for those 7 years. No real winners could be determined, ever. Lance got to keep most of his money , he really should can it . He is toxic to cycling.dave08-04-2025
- Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes riskHoopoeChai07-04-2025
- Even if not technically against the rules, this is just bad etiquette and frankly I hope the rest of pelaton remembers Arkea don't care about etiquette or honoring tradition which means they shouldn't benifit from it.HoopoeChai07-04-2025
- The other issue is that Mad Petersen and Wout would have let MVDP do most of the work, as he kept showing he was stronger. MVDP did the strategy with the highest likelihood of victory, he just wasn't strong enough.acem8207-04-2025