Wout van Aert: "I still believe in the overall victory for Jumbo-Visma"

Wout van Aert is a crucial piece of Jumbo-Visma's strategy to win the Tour de France, and after the first mountain clash he's talked about how he believes in the team and the good signs that come after a set of stressful days.

"It was my second time climbing to La Planche des Belles Filles with the gravel section at the end. I was already here in 2019, it’s really spectacular," Van Aert said at the end of a fast day in the bunch. "As for myself, I hadn’t planned anything. At the end, I could enjoy the climb. I’ve seen many Belgian fans"

Very quickly, we’ve seen that UAE Team Emirates was taking the race under their control, it meant that Pogacar was there for winning. He really wanted this stage and he made it," he added. With family on the final climb in the Vosges, UAE Team Emirates worked for the yellow jersey all day long and then saw Pogacar outsprint Jonas Vingegaard to the win at the summit.

With the Dane matching Pogacar and Primoz Roglic finishing third, Jumbo-Visma remained firm and showed they continue having depth and multiple options to attack the race. "However, we have showed that we can challenge him with Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic in the mountains. So I still believe in the overall victory for Jumbo-Visma," the Belgian confidently put.

As for the points classification where he is leading, he extended his lead to Fabio Jakobsen to 63 points. “In the intermediate sprint, there were only five points up for grab but it didn’t cost me any energy to go for it. It would have been stupid not to try and I love to compete," he said regarding that.

Today will be a day perfectly suited for the Belgian, but to be in contention for the stage win he will require the day's breakaway to be reeled in which won't be an easy task.