"Now he has Laporte in his pocket" - Jose De Cauwer praises Wout van Aert's Gent-Wevelgem tactics

With Jumbo-Visma absolutely dominating at Gent Wevelgem, the team were given the ultimate choice of handpicking the race winner. Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte decided it was the Frenchman's time, something that could prove beneficial for van Aert in the long run.

These are at least the thoughts of Sporza analysts, Jose De Cauwer and Karl Vannieuwkerke. "I think that he decided this himself. He wanted to do this for his teammate and his friend," De Cauwer believes. "Then you no longer have to intervene from the team car. This is to his credit."

"I think it's great that a leader also has a portion of altruism. He still needs those others in the future," Vannieuwkerke agrees. "If he had never won Gent-Wevelgem, he wouldn't have done this. He has already won the E3 bag, that makes it all easier. Now he has Laporte in his pocket for the Tour of Flanders."

According to De Cauwer, this kind of performance says as much about van Aert the man as it does the rider. "95 percent of the peloton wouldn't do this. I've seen few riders do it in the past, certainly few champions. And that's Wout," he says. "It is something special. It is beautiful on the one hand, but I also had to blink my eyes."