"I hope I’m not upsetting any sprinters by saying this..." - Wout van Aert blasts Tour de France organisers for 'disappointing' last-minute change to TT cut-off time

A brutal mountain time trial is on the menu for the peloton on stage 13 of the 2025 Tour de France this Friday afternoon in the Pyrenees. In a last minute decision, the race organisers have increased the time limit cut-off from 33% to 40%. That decision has left Wout van Aert furious.

“Suddenly, ten minutes before the start, the time limit was increased — for reasons I still don’t understand,” the Team Visma | Lease a Bike superstar fumed to Dutch TV NOS, after making the time cut himself relatively comfortably. “I still had to push pretty hard to get there. But I do want to say something about it — I'm really disappointed that the time limit was suddenly increased to forty percent.”

“There was no real change in circumstances, and the time trial route had been known for months. There’s a rule that says it's supposed to be 33 percent, and yet suddenly — ten minutes before the start — it gets extended," he continues furiously. "I hope I’m not upsetting any sprinters by saying this, but decisions like that need to be announced well in advance and made clear. You can't just change the rules without a valid reason.”

When the prospect of having potentially 40 or even 50 riders forced to leave the race if 33% had been the time cut, Van Aert puts the blame back onto Tour de France organisers ASO. “That would be a real shame — but it's something the jury should have considered much earlier," he says bluntly.