Wout van Aert celebrates Evenepoel victory at Olympics but laments crash ruining his chances: "I knew I had the legs to do something great"

Wout van Aert was focusing on the Olympic Games as the main goal of his second part of the season and although he arrived with a very different preparation than what initially planned, he showed great legs in Paris and played an important role for the team's victory. Nevertheless, his own ambitions were not fulfilled and he laments the crash in the finale that saw him out of contention for a medal.

"I have mixed feelings about this. I also had expectations for today. I was still able to play my part in the final. But when I fell, I was no longer focused on the race," van Aert said in an interview with VTM. Belgium played their cards seemingly perfectly however, failing to put Mathieu van der Poel under pressure before the final circuit, but with one deadly strike taking the victory with Remco Evenepoel.

Van Aert was initially the only rider to respond to an attack from Mathieu van der Poel when the peloton entered the final circuit in Paris. "I may not have felt great at first, but at that moment I knew I had the legs to do something great. There are few who can respond to an attack by Mathieu". They were joined by Julian Alaphilippe, Matteo Jorgenson and Toms Skujins, but a few kilometers later another set of riders bridged across from behind.

“I was shocked that there was still such a large group, because we did not stand still." Among them was Remco Evenepoel who didn't have the explosivity to match the first attack, but had tremendous firepower still in his legs. "I saw Remco take off like a rocket. It was up to him to choose a tough moment between the climbs. That way I was sitting in an armchair and could follow others. I knew it was a golden moment. There was no reaction and he had support at the front.”

The race was then eventually won by his compatriot whilst van Aert marked van der Poel and prevented him from bridging across. “We were shadowing each other. We realized that we were not riding for the medals. For me it was for a place of honor, but I was able to play my part. Remco started from the right place and was the strongest.”

But the race didn't end the way he hoped for. Even with the win not being possible anymore, a worthy result after a long race was. But van Aert crashed in the final kilometers, overcooking a corner and crashing into the barrier, which eventually led him to finish 37th. “We went into that corner thinking it was a gentle corner. It was much more of a chicane than I had anticipated. But I wasn’t riding for a good position anymore," he concluded.