"My goal is to stay out of trouble" - Wout van Aert dismisses Volta ao Algarve sprints, instead focus on climbing form and Remco Evenepoel

Wout van Aert is today a star in the roads of Portugal. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider takes on his first stage-race of the season at the Volta ao Algarve, and takes aim to the difficult stages of the Portuguese race instead of the sprints

"Was of course disappointing result I felt good but the moment I had the mechanical the race was about to start so it was still question for me how I would feel in the final. I was more disappointed for that than the result itself of course also, but it was a race where I wanted to find out how good the legs are and I didn't came to that point," van Aert shared this morning with CyclingPro.net regarding the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior.

He was a big favourite for the Spanish race, but does not fear issues in the team's material ahead of the spring. "No because it was a big nail, it's just unlucky that I was the one who rode into it. There's no tire material strong enough to handle this kind of stuff..." Last April at Paris-Roubaix, he suffered a puncture as he attacked the race finale, and ever since the team has been keen on paying extra attention to preventing this sort of problems.

However in the Algarve van Aert finds smooth roads, where he will be able to test himself once again - this time around likely without mishaps. Two hilly stages and a time-trial lay ahead of the Belgian, who admits he will not target the sprint on stage 1: "No it's not my goal. My goal is to stay out of trouble and be ready for the harder stages."

"I think the hard stages are specially hard with the real GC guys like Remco and some guys from INEOS I believe. Will be hard there to really win but it's the best way to prepare myself for the classics to go and try it," he says. "That's why I will target these stages more than the flat stages."

Whether he will try to go for the overall classification or not is a decision internal to the Dutch team, signs point towards that being the case if he has the legs, but there is most likely no pressure to do that as of now.