"We’ll need to really analyse what can be improved in his sprint" - Visma admits slight concern over Wout van Aert's lack of finishing touch

Ordinarily, you would always expect Wout van Aert to be able to beat Remco Evenepoel in a sprint for the line. Last Friday at Brabantse Pijl 2025 however, that was not the case, and alarmingly, it's not the first time in recent weeks that the Belgian has been somewhat surprisingly beaten in the final sprint either.

With multiple Grand Tour stage wins from a bunch sprint, Van Aert was once regarded as one of the quickest finishers in the entire peloton. Those days seem to be long gone though, with Neilson Powless and the aforementioned Evenepoel both out-kicking the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader in fight for wins recently. As such, Visma sports director Arthur van Dongen admits there is a slight concern over Van Aert's notable lack of a finishing touch.

“We all know Wout has always been one of the fastest guys in the peloton. That seems to be a bit less the case at the moment," explains Van Dongen in conversation with Wielerflits following the Brabantse Pijl loss to Evenepoel. "We’ve got the Amstel Gold Race coming up on Sunday, and after that we’ll need to really analyse what can be improved in his sprint. We need to consider everything in order to come back stronger in the future. But for now, the focus has to be fully on Amstel.”

Van Aert himself also notes the need for improvement in the finale, especially considering he still searches for his first win of 2025. “It’s something I’ll really need to work on," he admits. "I want to find those old sprinting legs again. Right now, I don’t even have a clear explanation for why it’s not working. We haven’t changed anything in our training, so it’s something I definitely want to take a closer look at.”

Nevertheless, Van Dongen and Visma retain their faith in Van Aert as leader for the Amstel Gold Race. “He never looked in trouble today, so that should give him a lot of confidence heading into Amstel. But as I always say: you’re only as strong as your rivals allow you to be. Evenepoel is world-class, and Tadej Pogacar will also be there on Sunday. Still, we’re going to try and animate the race as a team,” the DS concludes. “That’s something we’ll quietly plan over the coming days. In any case, we want to make the race exciting - and you’ll see what happens on Sunday.”