Wout van Aert laments bad positioning at Volta ao Algarve: "I lost too many positions there to ride a good sprint"

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.

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