"I didn’t have the legs for it” - Wout van Aert unable to live up to his pre-stage 9 prediction at 2025 Tour de France

Wout van Aert said after his second place on stage 8 at the 2025 Tour de France, the Belgian said that he would pre-announce on social media the next time he hoped to fight for the win. As it turned out, that came quickly, as before stage 9, Van Aert took to his official X (Twitter) account to declare: "I'm going to join the sprint today."

Sadly though, Van Aert proved unable to live up to this prediction, as he dropped out of contention after trying to help Team Visma | Lease a Bike put pressure on Jonas Vingegaard's Maillot Jaune rivals in the crosswinds. “I let myself get caught out,” he admitted in post-stage comments collected by Sporza at the finish line. “It wasn’t smart, but I could already feel I didn’t have much left in the tank.”

“We really wanted to take control as a team. I think there was enough wind, but it was never quite blowing in the right direction,” he continues, detailing Visma's aggressive strategy in the wind. “I’d hoped to make it to the finish in a crosswind group and fight for the win in the sprint, but I knew I didn’t have the legs for it. The final really started with 50 kilometres to go, and I just wasn’t feeling great. It took a lot out of me just to stay up front.”

As such, Van Aert's flame burned out a little early and the Belgian eventually came home 17 seconds down in 64th place. “As a team, we wanted to force something in the crosswinds, but I could only contribute so much,” he concludes his analysis.