"It's worth it to be patient" - Wout van Aert ends six month wait for a win with stage 3 success at the Vuelta a Espana
Cycling
After nine stages of the Tour de France in his career, Wout van Aert can now call himself a stage winner of the Vuelta a Espana also after a powerful display of sprinting in the finale of 3 at the 2024 edition of the Spanish Grand Tour.
"That's nice that it works out like that. It's worth it to be patient," the Team Visma | Lease a Bike superstar reflects afterwards having been made to wait nearly six months for a victory, dating all the way back to Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in February. "It's been a while but this feels so good!"
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After narrowly missing out to Kaden Groves in the finale of stage 2, this time around Van Aert was able to get the best of his Australian sprint rival. Whilst the day before, Groves took Van Aert's wheel, this time around the roles were reversed. "It was my goal to do the opposite," the Belgian explains. "I wanted to use my power and I think I surprised him by going even before 200m. It was slightly uphill but with a lot of speed so the perfect sprint for me."
"My confidence was quite good. Yesterday I felt good on the stage and today again even though it was even warmer. The team was so strong and we had the whole race in control and they dropped me in the perfect position in the end, so yeah, this gave me the confidence to finish it off," he concludes his assessment. "Unfortunately, the fun is over now. Tomorrow I will be happy to give the role of leader of the team to Sepp Kuss and Cian Uijtdebroeks. There is a super hard climb and that will be the first test for the GC guys and for me it will be really hard to keep the jersey so I'll try to enjoy it one more time."
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
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Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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WOUT VAN AERT (VISMA - LEASE A BIKE) WINS STAGE 3 OF LA VUELTA IN CASTELO BRANCO! 👏❤️ The Red Jersey did a perfect sprint against Groves and took his first victory since February, great to see this. Grande Wout! #LaVuelta24
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