“Yeah still 24 hours before the race, so it's good to be
relaxed at this point."
When asked how his week had gone following the Tour of
Flanders, Van Aert reported a strong recovery and renewed motivation.
"It was a nice week. I felt like the recovery was
really good after Flanders and, yeah, was straight away looking forward to the
day of tomorrow."
Despite setbacks earlier in the season, he now feels
mentally and physically ready to take on the challenge.
"Yeah of course the beginning of the season was
complicated for me. I think um it was hard to find the right legs in the
classics and uh from last weekend on I felt, well, I felt like myself again and
for sure it was good for the morale to be in a final again in Tour of Flanders,
with the best riders."
As for the favourites, Van Aert sees no surprises when it
comes to who he believes will be strongest on the day.
"For me, there’s no clear favourite. It’s as I expected,
Mathieu and Tadej are a bit stronger than the others. They’ve dropped us a few
times, especially on hillier terrain back home, but they have the acceleration.
So for me, they’re still the main favourites tomorrow."
For Van Aert, there is only one objective.
“Yeah of course I'm here to win. It's a dream for me to win
this race and we keep on trying."