"I think he was too nervous" - Tom Boonen's point of view on Wout van Aert's failed sprint at Dwars door Vlaanderen
Cycling
Tom Boonen is a rider that knows all about winning big cobbled classics, and on his long palmarès stands the 2007 Dwars door Vlaanderen. 18 years later he finds himself commenting on his compatriot Wout van Aert who was unable to finish off Team Visma | Lease a Bike's job this Wednesday.
"That hurts. I thought it was great that Wout took responsibility during the race and told his teammates that 'it was for him' yesterday. But then you want to finish it off," Boonen said in the Wielerclub Wattage show.
The Dutch team managed to, for the first time in this classics campaign, not only put the rest of the peloton under pressure but effectively destroy it and create a collective attack that resembled the tactics of years ago.
But in the finale, at the request of a Wout van Aert who needed the motivation and to hit back on the critics, the team didn't attack Neilson Powless but carried the group to a sprint, where van Aert cramped and lost it against the American. It was a huge psychological hit, and he admitted to be the one responsible for the team's defeat in such a wildly favourable scenario.
"They should just classify it and remember the positive. I don't think Wout is still in sackcloth and ashes," Boonen argues however, aware that this was also the strongest van Aert this spring so far and his form is coming around just in time for the monuments [...] I think he was too nervous. It was the first time in a long time that Wout was in that position," he says as to why the Belgian struggled in the sprint.
"Wout probably started the sprint with the idea of 'ouch'. And when he saw that pink shadow coming, he got blocked. During the race, his team also played the long game yesterday with a long, heavy effort of 2.5 to 3 hours. That is also what Wout is good at and what he has trained a lot for."
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🇧🇪 #DDV25
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) April 2, 2025
We made the race hard, we tried to give the fans something special, but at the end of the day, all we can do is compliment our opponents. On to Sunday! 🐝 pic.twitter.com/aUljWZbeET
if there is an actual weakness in wout even when completely healthy, it’s that he’s in his head too often. this has been pointed out many times by much more acute observers of cycling than ME, certainly. it may be that he’s been like this since he was a little kid. we are who we are. or that he was shaped by having faced van der poel SOOO many times. mvdp has zero second thoughts. he wastes no time at all on doubt. that has, in the past, led him to do some pretty insane things and make mistakes that wout would never have committed. but it also makes him a killer. you can see wout’s split seconds of doubt and hesitation everywhere in their head to head battles. those hesitations spill over into other races at times like dwars, when doubt creeps in. i believe that currently he is still coming back from physical problems due to injuries, but even when he’s full strength the mental game is an area of potential concern, AND potential improvement.
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