“Other teams should simply have ridden harder” – Wout van Aert hits back after Visma refuse to chase fourth straight Tour of Denmark win
Cycling
Wout van Aert defended Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s refusal to carry the chase for a fourth consecutive victory at the 2026 Tour of Denmark, insisting their rivals should have ridden harder themselves.
Storm Ingebrigtsen ended Van Aert’s perfect run by surviving from the breakaway to win Stage 4 in Faaborg. The Norwegian attacked with 2.7 kilometres remaining and held off the rapidly closing peloton for the second professional victory of his career.
Visma had no rider in the seven-man escape but declined to spend heavily once it became clear that none of the attackers threatened Van Aert’s overall lead.
“Our goal was to retain the overall lead and start tomorrow without any stress. We managed that perfectly,” Van Aert told VTM Nieuws. “It was a tricky finishing circuit. Had we tried to control the race by ourselves, we might have been left without enough help at the end.”
Van Aert had won each of the opening three stages, prevailing from a reduced group in Aalborg, edging an extraordinarily tight photo finish in Skive and then taking the queen stage into Vejle. Those victories gave him a 21-second advantage over Lukas Kubis before the race reached Faaborg.
Visma leave the chase to their rivals
Ingebrigtsen escaped alongside Christopher Juul-Jensen, Stian Rosenlund, Sebastian Grignard, Axel Kallberg, Tomasso Bessega and Francesco Carollo after almost 70 kilometres of aggressive racing.
The group was held at around two minutes for much of the afternoon, but Visma eased off on the finishing circuits as Alpecin-Premier Tech became increasingly responsible for closing the gap.
“We simply wanted to start the climb in a good position,” Van Aert explained. “Considering we had already won three times, it was not up to us to pull everyone else’s chestnuts out of the fire again. Other teams should simply have ridden harder.”
Lidl-Trek later joined Alpecin in the pursuit and reduced the advantage sharply inside the final 15 kilometres. The escape looked doomed when only ten seconds remained with three kilometres to go, but hesitation in the reduced peloton opened the door for one final attack.
Ingebrigtsen accelerated immediately, distanced Kallberg and carried a lead of around 12 seconds beneath the flamme rouge. Visma moved Van Aert towards the front behind, but the Norwegian had already created the decisive separation.
Van Aert takes healthy lead into final stage
Van Aert retained the leader’s jersey and remained on course to secure overall victory, while Christophe Laporte collected an intermediate bonus second to strengthen his position in the fight for the final podium place.
The race concludes with a flat final stage into Rodovre, although Van Aert expects an aggressive closing circuit rather than a ceremonial procession. “It will be like a criterium finale, only without it being decided beforehand who is going to win,” he joked. “I expect it to be full gas. I felt good on the bike today and recovered really well from yesterday. I’m happy with how everything is going.”
Van Aert will begin the final stage with his 21-second advantage intact after Visma protected the jersey without taking responsibility for delivering another sprint.
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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