Wout van Aert laments bad positioning at Volta ao Algarve: "I lost too many positions there to ride a good sprint"
Cycling
Wout van Aert came to the Volta ao Algarve with the ambition of taking a stage win but thus far life hasn't been easy for the Belgian, nor Team Visma | Lease a Bike as a whole in the Portuguese race as a matter of fact. Today's stage 3 finished in Tavira where van Aert won last year, but this time around the chaotic finale saw him well behind the fight for victory.
After a cancelled stage and a difficult day in the mountains, today was the first opportunity to fight for a real result but van Aert was caught up in the 'washing machine effect' that often marks the fast bunch sprints. Today's was not for the faint hearted, with several downhill sections, roundabouts and a tricky set of final corners where there was a crash. Van Aert sprinted to an eighth place on the day, but he didn't even get to reach the head of the peloton.
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"It is difficult to judge your sprint when you had to come from far away," he said in a post-race interview, disappointed with the outcome. "It was actually a very quiet day. Everything went smoothly, until the last five kilometres. Then it became a very punchy finale. The speed was very high. I was well positioned, until the roundabout 800 metres from the finish. I lost too many positions there to ride a good sprint".
With riders around him falling and others trying to gain positions, perhaps the Belgian has struggled with the sharpness required to fight for the best position in the group - something which this sprint saw quite a lot. He had a strong turn of speed but when he launched his bid for the line, it was already too far away to dream of a victory.
Tomorrow on stage 4 he will have another opportunity. "I rode a good sprint, although it is always difficult to judge your sprint when you had to come from far away. But I am happy that I was in it again." On stage 5 there will be a time-trial where he will be a potential candidate for victory, but the presence of a final ascent will make it hard for him to match the GC riders in his current form.
🇵🇹 #VoltaAoAlgarve
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) February 21, 2025
P8️⃣ for Wout today. pic.twitter.com/juixObqKjx
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
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- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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