La cara cruel del ciclismo 💔 Los gritos de dolor de Van Aert tras caerse y verse obligado a abandonar. #LaVuelta24 | #LaCasadelCiclismo
"Wout van Aert cannot be replaced... We will miss him. Remco Evenepoel too" - Belgian national coach sees World and European Championship plans scuppered by Vuelta crash
CyclingFriday, 06 September 2024 at 15:00
Things seemed to be looking very strong for the Belgians heading into the upcoming European and World Championships. With one nasty crash at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana however, national coach Sven Vanthourenhout's plans have been thrown into disarray.
"I cursed really hard," admits Vanthourenhout in conversation with Sporza about the moment Wout van Aert crashed out of the Spanish Grand Tour having slid out into a concrete wall on a wet and pacey descent earlier this week. "You immediately saw the seriousness of the situation, but the human side also came to the fore. You know Wout's story and then you think: not again? He had to fight hard to get back to the highest level and he succeeded, which is not easy. But now there is another one of those problems."
After having won three stages at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana and been nearing a historic double win of both the Points Classification and the King of the Mountains classification, Van Aert was looking somewhere close to his best. Vanthourenhout has spoken to his compatriot and as expected, Van Aert has taken the blow hard both mentally and physically. "To say he is disappointed is an understatement," says the Belgian national coach. "Wout also has a limit. We have no doubt that things will turn out well again, because that is typical of him. But you shouldn't take that for granted."
"It is difficult to accept as a national coach, because Wout has enormous added value on and off the bike. He cannot be replaced," Vanthourenhout continues. "In Limburg, he had to share leadership with the sprinters. Zurich would be on the limit, but look at Wout in the Vuelta: he could have come into his own there. We will miss him. Remco Evenepoel too, because they had grown closer in recent years. We saw that at the Games too. They really found each other and that will probably continue to be the case in the long run, but it is a shame that we have to miss Wout."
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- Strong team around Jonas and pray each day that Tadej forgets to eat in the decisive stages (col du Granon). It also happened this year, stage 11 when Jonas won the sprint (incredible! Tadej was empty).
maria2024202430-12-2024 - Not quite yet I’d say but she could reach and surpass. You probably forgot Vos’ 2 track WC titles that outweigh the total and it has to be said more of PFPs MTB titles are a bit far fetched than Vos but yes they are comparable. It’s strange that with her consistent participation in xc she’s never ever managed to win even one race, Marie Schreiber can at least retire with that achievement ;-)Mistermaumau30-12-2024
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- and yeah, i’m a ridiculous blowhard for writing THAT MUCH. seriously, f me…OCexile30-12-2024
- this has diverged from being a per se cycling discussion, but that’s cool with me. so i live in the united states. for background, i grew up in southern california, educated at UC Irvine and UC Berkeley, and except for chunks of a 22 year Navy career i’ve lived here most of my life. there are things about this country, the way its social, political, and economic institutions function that IN MY OPINION fail considerably in comparison to other developed democracies. BUT, one thing that i think the US does excel in is that we have an extraordinarily high level of freedom of speech. now, that certainly opens the door for the alex joneses of the world to weaponize/monetize speech in utterly disgusting ways that do actual damage. it also gives freedom to politicians to say that the press is corrupt and should be jailed, like in russia, iran, or venezuela. these are DANGEROUS uses of freedom of speech. but as much as that freedom may imperil the well being of individuals and ideas — like the idea of liberty itself — it’s that freedom that has, over time, marked the SLOW movement toward greater equality and well being. this extreme level of free speech is certainly the primary fundamental right in the united states that has functioned, over time, to actively drive social progress. i mean, quack quack quack, right? the kind of speech that MOST needs protection is UNPOPULAR SPEECH. we KNOW this. but if you can only engage in unpopular speech IN PRIVATE, as you suggested, and be BARRED from a public platform to share those unpopular ideas, then your freedom to speak means very little and the whole project of social change and social progress grinds to a halt. “YES, you can talk about all races being equal to your friends, but you can’t publish any articles making that argument.” “YES, you can say that homosexuality isn’t a dangerous perversion that must be legislated against so long as you ONLY say it to your friends, but you can’t say it on a radio show.” so the problem is, if there’s going to be prior restraint of speech, the only person I’M gonna trust to decide who can say what before they say it is ME. if somebody wants to let me and my friends make all those decisions, then i’m IN. i’d expect a little pushback on that idea though. alex jones would probably like that job, too. lance would love that kind of power i bet. sooooo…. maybe it’s better to just leave things like they are. it’s ugly and messy and people get hurt, but once you SURRENDER that nearly unlimited freedom you’ll never get it back. and yes, society has drawn lines: still can’t threaten to blow up a mosque or share child pornography, etc. — that’s a pretty good idea. but erring on the side of freedom rather than censorship has been critical in preserving valuable free speech rather than seeing it slowly winnowed and legislated away. so yeah, there WILL be another alex jones, neonazis get to deny the holocaust, and lance gets to talk about cycling all he wants. and if you don’t like the source or the content then YOU are free to rail against it, or just not listen. as always, totally appreciate and respect YOUR perspective, brother. and i do get where you’re coming from. there are individuals in the US who have (or are about to have) the biggest platform there is who say things that drive me mad because i find them so dangerous and misleading, but the american version of democracy, with all its notable failings, has survived by preserving freedom of speech in the face of these types, not by limiting it.OCexile30-12-2024
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- his wife was surprisingly accurateabstractengineer30-12-2024
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