"The race went 99.9 percent perfectly for them" - José de Cauwer cautious to criticize Visma after DDV disaster
Cycling
Wout van Aert was beaten in the final sprint of Dwars door Vlaanderen by Neilson Powless and it ruined a day's worth of incredible work and tactics. There are positives and negatives to take from Team Visma | Lease a Bike's performance in the final race days before the Tour of Flanders, but Belgian commentator and pundit José de Cauwer won't rule out the good that was seen.
"The race went 99.9 percent perfectly for them. They raced hard, rode away where you wanted to ride away... And then those last hundred meters... They messed up so much. Mentally," de Cauwer said on Sporza.
"You still have Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That all has to be sorted out. And it wasn't the Tour of Flanders either. But the only thing that will change because of this is that they will think at Visma-Lease a Bike: we are going for yellow."
The truth is the Dutch team managed to catch everyone by surprise in a moment of the race where everyone knew positioning was key, and managed to split the peloton enough that they've had three riders go up the road, leaving behind specialists such as Mads Pedersen who's been on incredible form. This will be hard to replicate in Flanders, a race with a stronger startlist and rivals such as Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel, but it will be a tactic that'll stay in mind.
It is a big 'if' though, and the defeat in the finale will have ruined whichever motivation could've come from it. "This race could have boosted morale. That's not completely gone now. They've clearly worked hard, he's been prepared. Was that good enough? Only Van Aert knows that when he looks deep in the mirror."
However, a race of such difficulty remains one that is brutal for all riders, and in the end we may see surprises: "The Tour is and remains the Tour of Flanders: Bettiol won the Tour, Asgreen beat Van der Poel, something that was also impossible. Never say never".
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😳 Wout van Aert's knee from previous crashes and injuries...
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) April 3, 2025
The man is a warrior 💪 pic.twitter.com/3qcdP18COU
As Wout said on Srava today "Things don't always go your way... but a flat white and peanut butter brownie can make up for a lot" Puts it in perspective!
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maria2024202407-04-2025 - So in the end he did pretty well tactically too :-)Mistermaumau07-04-2025
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