Wout van Aert: "It was not a choice to drop early yesterday, it was because I was suffering"

Wout van Aert had unknown form at the start of the Tour de France but took great confidence from his opening day in the race. On the second day he crashed and perhaps that led him to struggle more than expected on stage 4. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider was of little support to Jonas Vingegaard on the first day in the mountains.

“Yesterday I seriously struggled, partly because of Victor Campenaerts. He drove me crazy," van Aert joked in the microphones of Wielerflits this morning. "Afterwards I had a difficult day. It was not a choice to drop early yesterday, it was because I was suffering. I am not used to that in the mountains." Van Aert has shown great level in the past at the Tour and he may still grow into that, but for the time being he was among those that struggled the most when the riders entered the uphill gradients.

On stage 3 he wanted to have a shot at the final sprint but a mass crash derailed the Belgian rider's plans. After a rough set of days, van Aert reconsiders going for the bunch sprint on the second opportunity of the race. "I will first see if I have the right feeling again today. For me, the stages on Friday, Saturday and Sunday are very important. In the Tour you have to dare to make choices.”

With a very tense and fast finale with a mass crash on stage 3, it is likely that Visma will instead focus on positioning Jonas Vingegaard with van Aert and Christophe Laporte having key roles. “It is an interesting finale. Just like in Turin, it is quite straightforward. A good evolution. After a kilometer straight ahead, we finish after a gentle bend, that should not have happened," he analyzes. "In a bend, you change your line by definition and that can bring dangers."