Wout van Aert disappointed to miss out on final Tour de France opportunity: "Came down to that descent and everyone was over"

Wout van Aert had, as Matt Stephens said whilst interviewing the Belgian for Eurosport, a 'target on his back'. It was always going to be very hard for the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider to win today out of 36 riders who jumped in the day's breakaway, but van Aert was still disappointed to miss out on the win in what was his final real chance to climb onto the top step in this Tour de France.

"It's specially good when they're there when you win, but it everything comes into the context when you don't win. This is my world," van Aert said in a post-race interview. The classics specialist made it into the right move on the day and was in contention for a result. Visma had a clear plan at some point through the stage, as it was clear that van Aert had to hide in the back of the group as he was being constantly marked. His teammate Bart Lemmen covered many attacks and got himself into the chasing group that battled for a top result on the day.

"I told Bart [Lemmen] to jump on the counter-attacks. Came down to that descent and everyone was over," van Aert says. In the moment Michal Kwiatkowski attacked for victory he was not badly positioned in the front of the group, but he admits that he was on the limit. "It's a shame because this blue jersey is quite invisible I thought but apparently everyone knows my number," he joked. "I know it's hard to win from the break, it is for everyone. When Kwiato went he was strong, and I was kind of on the limit at the top of the KOM. Yeah It's a shame, afterwards was the first moment of the race when I was like I have to gamble into the most easy part of the stage.

Van Aert tried to kickstart a chase and attack several times from behind to form a group that could chase the winning trio, but it was too hard of a mission on essentially flat roads. He will leave this Tour without a win, but still has domestique duties in the coming days for Jonas Vingegaard. "Two really big days still to come. I hope the guys in the bunch had an easier day than what we had so they can at least do the beginning tomorrow," he concluded.