"It was Wout's explicit wish to ride the Vuelta after the Tour" - Visma will help Wout van Aert to win again at Vuelta a Espana
Cycling
Wout van Aert had a clear plan for his season but the brutal crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen flipped it on it's head. No cobbled monuments, no Giro d'Italia; but instead the Tour de France and now also the Vuelta a España. The Belgian wants to win big again and Team Visma | Lease a Bike want it just as much in Spain.
"Wout is very keen to prove himself again this year. His urge to win is very strong," DS Girscha Niermann told Sporza. "The races will of course follow each other quickly for Wout this summer. But that was discussed and planned. It was Wout's explicit wish to ride the Vuelta after the Tour. He wanted to try something different and is open to new challenges. But due to his crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen, things turned out a bit differently and he had to cancel the Giro."
Van Aert showed sub-optimal form during the Tour but he was on the rise and building towards the Olympics. In Paris he showed his best legs, racing to a surprising third place in the time-trial and then matching Mathieu van der Poel's attacks on the road race. Whilst he himself crashed and lost hopes of a result, his performance was key in Belgium's tactics when it came to delivering a win with Remco Evenepoel.
"As a team, we will do everything we can to help him win a stage in the Vuelta. He deserves it," Niermann assures. "We see a lot of opportunities for Wout to win. Ideally, even more than five. He will have a few strong men to support him. Wout can also win stages from the breakaway. He has already proven that in the Tour."
Van Aert came close a few times at the Tour, but his last win was at Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne back in February. Last year the Vuelta featured a very modest field of sprinters and van Aert could perform there as well as on the hilly stages. Besides, he could be a pivotal support piece for defending champion Sepp Kuss.
"Sepp is the outgoing champion, but not the top favorite to win this Vuelta. That means that Wout will not have to sacrifice himself in every mountain stage. In the Tour there were only 2.5 favorites and we had one of them with Jonas. In the Vuelta there are six or seven teams that can take the final victory. So in Spain we will not have to control every mountain stage from kilometer marker 0, which means that Wout will have a different role than in the Tour," he concluded.
Read also
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024