"We can expect the yellow jersey and a stage win for sure, like in 2022" - Bakelants backs Wout van Aert for Tour de France success

Wout van Aert's former training partner Jan Bakelants quite often talks about the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider and after the stupendous Giro d'Italia in which he was key to the team, he believes the Belgian is heading for success at the Tour de France as well.

"Wout may not agree with me. But the Wout of the summer is in a different category than the Wout of the beginning of the season. If you look at the exhibitions he's already given in the Tour... His best spring Monument he rode in the fall," Bakelants said to Wielerevue. "That Tour of Flanders in the year of the coronavirus, when Mathieu van der Poel beat him for nothing."

Taking into consideration past performances and results, he believes there will be an improvement over the past month that hadn't been seen earlier this year. "In college I learned about the 'circadian rhythm.' It's a day-night rhythm, but over a longer period it can also be interpreted as a seasonal variation. For the big cycling teams it's still unexplored territory, but it can partly explain the results of some riders."

"Wout may think it's all nonsense, but if I had a team, I would definitely contact a university to investigate it further". Bakelants expectations for van Aert are very high, taking into consideration the first week of the race which features several hilly days.

"The Tour is a bit Wout's race, where we've always seen his best version. For me, we can expect the yellow jersey and a stage win for sure, like in 2022. But it will all depend on the team and their plans. For Vingegaard, the stages in the north of France generate a lot of tension, but for Wout the second and fourth stages are a piece of cake."

However, despite his extreme success in the past, Bakelants argues that van Aert does not have to match what he's done in the past in order to be considered a success. "The Tour will be a success if Wout wins at least one stage; it will be a bit of a failure if he doesn't win any."