Thomas Dekker sees that Visma didn't actually know how to set up Wout Van Aert into the sprint at Dwars door Vlaanderen: "They rode way too hard"
Cycling
Wout Van Aert as well as whole Visma | Lease a Bike was under heavy criticism for their tactical performance in the final of Wednesday's Dwars door Vlaanderen. But Thomas Dekker points out that, besides the fact that Visma obviously shouldn't have been betting on sprint in 3 vs 1 scenario, the lead-out by Matteo Jorgenson and Tiesj Benoot for Van Aert only benefitted Neilson Powless.
Dekker explains this in the Live Slow, Ride Fast show: "Jorgenson can race very well and deliver enormous power, but imagine if Gianni Vermeersch had to do this for Mathieu van der Poel... That would have gone very differently, because at Team Visma | Lease a Bike they go into that sprint much too hard."
Powless was able to use that speed, says Dekker. "It should have been much more controlled. You shouldn't make sure that the fourth gets the most speed. That way, a lot of momentum was created for Powless."
Afterwards Van Aert was very critical of himself. "You could see in Jorgenson's eyes that he didn't understand it. He also said that Powless is just very fast. It's unique how they rode, but it does cover a bit of the load of the spring how it went now."
Van Aert will act differently in the Tour of Flanders because of Dwars door Vlaanderen, Dekker expects. "His decisions at the Tour will be different because of today. He will tell Jorgenson to keep riding. Then he will not have done anything wrong. That's how it will be, because he is a human being. But he is not the absolute leader at the moment."
Dekker also understood that Van Aert said that he wanted to go for himself. "In Dwars door Vlaanderen he had to do that too, because the other two (Van der Poel and Pogacar, ed.) weren't there. But yes, I am convinced that with those same legs he could have won."
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- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- If I remember well, Pidcock slowed, whether out of respect or strategically or just happy he could ease off a bit, only he knows. Your point?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I believe Mathieu rather gets beaten by a stronger rider than one who raced smarter. That is why he wanted to team up with Pogacar to drop the JV riders and Mads who were not helping in the chase of the first group since they had a teammate up front.JoostMehrtens08-04-2025
- Just shows that LA is not truly repentant. JUSTICE was served. No winner, no second , no third on the podium for those 7 years. No real winners could be determined, ever. Lance got to keep most of his money , he really should can it . He is toxic to cycling.dave08-04-2025
- Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes riskHoopoeChai07-04-2025