Wout van Aert criticizes Tour de France documentary: "The series is focused on commotion. Jonas and I are best friends"

Wout van Aert has been having extremely busy days recently, having travelled from a high-altitude camp in the Alps towards the start of the Tour de Suisse after the main Jumbo-Visma camp, and also the release of the Tour de France's Netflix series 'Unchained'. However, upon viewing it, the Belgian had criticism over the stories that were passed on.

The documentary series which followed seven teams came out to the public last Thursday, and although it saw mixed reactions it had a great amount of attention. “I was finally able to watch," van Aert shares in an interview with Sporza. "Because strange, but true, although I play one of the leading roles, I did not know what would be seen. It is quite disturbing that stories were written in the documentary that were not there. For me, the series is focused on commotion. Jonas and I are best friends."

Most noticeably in the series was the episode on stage 5, in which Jonas Vingegaard suffered a mechanical problem and the team was for brief moments in total chaos in a clip which became viral with several riders trying to assist him. Jumbo-Visma however went on to have an unimaginably successful race winning 6 stages with three different riders, as well as dominating the green jersey and succeeding in conquering the yellow jersey.

"The focus is on moments in which it is difficult to make the right choice," van Aert points out however, "but there are also so many moments in which we have strengthened each other and worked together. It is a pity that it has been removed.”

As for this year, his ambitions will be different. “The points classification sometimes gets in the way of stage victories. I don't want to have to focus on the intermediate sprints from the start of the next Tour," he confirms, having backed up what had been said over the past few weeks. He is looking to have his best form at the Glasgow World Championships and hence doesn't want to go above his limits throughout the Tour. 

This was the case last year where he has succeeded, but after the race had ended he had problems with recovering from the amount of efforts. "I am someone who likes to believe that there are almost no limits, but when it comes to last year's Tour, the ambition should not be to do even better. That Tour was exceptional, I realize that and the team realizes that.”

Lastly van Aert, who is currently riding the Tour de Suisse, confirms that the focus in preventing a Covid-19 outbreak as was the case at the Giro d'Italia is real and the team is actively playing it on the safe side. “The fear is still there. The Giro was a wake-up call. Corona is still there. I am especially shocked that a number of teammates have been seriously ill, although it was about light infections."