"It will be difficult to unite all interests" - Wout Van Aert hopes to settle things with Jasper Philipsen ahead of the European Championships

European Championships in Belgium is a huge motivation for all the big Belgian stars in the peloton, especially for the home crowd favourites Wout Van Aert and Jasper Philipsen. The race is most likely going to come to a sprint. And Belgian coach has plenty options to choose from in such scenario; Philipsen, Van Aert or Tim Merlier are all the right men for the job. However there's also a lot of rivalry between the fast men who'll have to find a common interest before they reach the finish town of Hasselt.

It's no secret that there is bad blood between Van Aert and Philipsen after the Tour de France. In the bunch sprint of sixth stage to Dijon, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider boxed in his Visma | Lease a Bike counterpart, for which he was later relegated. Van Aert added a comment about such behaviour being Philipsen's "bad habit" after which the two didn't talk much.

With European Championships approaching, Van Aert seems to realize that there are still some things that need to be sorted out. "I think it would be wise to resolve it. It’s not that we can’t smell or see each other anymore, but if we have to form a team together, it would be better to talk again," he said in a reaction to VTM NIEUWS after his third stage win at the Vuelta on Tuesday. "It will be difficult to unite all interests anyway, but I will go to the European Championships to try to win the race."

National coach Sven Vanthourenhout also logically wants the dispute to be resolved as soon as possible. "The intention is to have it settled before the EC," he said earlier today at the announcement of the EC selections. "We have already spoken to both riders about it."

"It is of course less convenient that one is currently at the Vuelta and the other has completed an altitude training camp and is now riding the Renewi Tour. Has it been resolved yet? They have already come to an agreement with each other to some extent," Vanthourenhout added. "What remains is just sitting at the table together. But I am not worried. The fact that it has already been discussed openly and clearly is actually enough for me."

When HLN confront Philipsen with this fact, he minimizes the 'dispute'. "For me, that has long been classified. I think that is also the case for Wout. Although our program in the run-up to the European Championship is different, we are still fellow countrymen, so we will still meet each other."