"I'm just stupid... There was much more possible" - Frustrated Lennert Van Eetvelt loses out to Roglic & Ayuso on stage 4 of Volta a Catalunya 2025
Cycling
For the second day running, the summit finish at the 2025 Volta a Catalunya was decided in a sprint between Juan Ayuso and Primoz Roglic, this time with the latter taking the win. In the end, the chasing pack finished stage 4 only 3 seconds down and had it not been for the work done by Lennert Van Eetvelt in the finale, that gap could have been a whole lot bigger.
The Van Eetvelt led chase group very nearly reeled in Roglic and Ayuso in the final few hundred metres, before the pair kicked away again as they opened their sprints for the line. In the end, this close call leaves a bitter feeling of disappointment for the Lotto leader, despite the impressiveness of his own ride. "The pace was pretty hard from the beginning of the climb, I felt pretty good but I'm just stupid," reflected the Belgian frustratedly in his post-stage interview with Eurosport immediately after crossing the line. "I think there was much more possible," Van Eetvelt continues, clarifying his statement of stupidity. "I was way too far back when the attacks started. And then yeah, that's just racing. But I felt really strong today."
In the end, Van Eetvelt crossed the line in 7th place, meaning that in the general classification, the Lotto leader is now 6th overall, 27 seconds down on the race leader Roglic.
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- hoping wout can “kick start” his season at de ronde just shows why hope is a terrible strategy. the hardest race of the classics season with both pog and mathieu on stratospheric form. good luck. and waiting for mvdp to eventually be “not as good” isn’t a great plan either, i think. matthieu only seems to keep getting BETTER.OCexile31-03-2025
- Too much amatuer psychology. How about this: "he was never as good as when he had not suffered multiple career-threatening injuries." What is happening to him is what happened to Alaphilippe, Bernal, and others. You will notice that his two major peers -- MVDP and Mads - are both at their all time best. You will also note that neither is coming off of anything like the same last 18 months that Wout is. Go back to 2022, then roll the tape forward with Wout remaining healhty and one of them having had multiple traumatic falls. Odds are good he'd be at his dominant best and they would not.MidnightRider31-03-2025
- Raymond Poulidor, Alfredo Binda.... where do we stop. If you want to retitle it is Primoz Roglic the bestr rider never to win the tour in the last ten or 20 years then that might be betterslappers6631-03-2025
- Let me help you. Alfredo BindaUpHill31-03-2025
- He'll certainly last it and prob ride his own race, at the front 😁
leedorney31-03-2025 - Gaio Primus Caesar Roglus, Rome is waiting for you, Imperator :-)).
maria2024202431-03-2025 - And he probably wasn’t even at the limit ;-) Have to wonder how much Mads could catch up if he’d tune his physique to be as sharp as MVDPs’Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Respect for giving Van Eetvelt credit there.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- He’s already a star for me for HAVING complained about it, the recent trend having been, let them then try to take advantage by making them sign NDAs ;-)Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Agreed, but if it was a radio thing then all the riders should have the same story and it would be easy to call anyone out. Kind of surprised this isn’t cleared up half officially afterwards, just like the Alaphilippe divorce, seems like once something spreads on the net it kind of gets accepted that everyone wants to have their own truth so no-one bothers to contest anything that’s verifiable anymore, we all just move on.Mistermaumau31-03-2025