Wout van Aert stays in yellow despite total chaos at Tour de France - "It was a true thriller, but not what we had hoped for"

Wout van Aert has proved once again to be an absolute crucial piece for Jumbo-Visma. On a day that has seen him in every kind of situation, the Belgian has managed to defend his yellow jersey whilst not having that into consideration throughout the day.

“Unfortunately, hectic days like today are also among them. After my crash, I was really scared," he said in a post-race interview. Early in the day he crashed together with Steven Kruijswijk, and was left worried as for some seconds he was holding on to a collarbone. Luckily it proved to have no fracture, and the Belgian returned to the peloton - where he was then necessary for the team's defensive needs. 

"Unfortunately, it turned out not to be the only bad luck within our team. It was chaos today. Yesterday we fought at the front, today we were forced to fight in the rear," he added. Van Aert dropped back to help Jonas Vingegaard after his mechanicals, and worked tirelessly back into the peloton which raced at full speed. At the end of the day he still remained in yellow, 13 seconds ahead of Neilson Powless.

"I'm proud of the whole team that we fought really hard. I didn't expect to still have the yellow jersey on my shoulders now. I wasn't even involved in that at all," he admited. "Christophe Laporte and I stayed with Jonas. I think we fought back fairly well. It was a true thriller, but not what we had hoped for."

Other riders were assigned to help Primoz Roglic who crashed whilst the duo was chasing, however the day's feeling is negative as Jumbo-Visma's main weapon has lost over two minutes to Tadej Pogacar and may be suffering with injury effects. 

“This is an incredibly disappointing day for us. Primoz and I both had some bad luck today. I myself am still reasonably good at it due to the great work of the team. Primoz is a lot more unhappy. The important thing is that he is physically okay. We still have every chance. We will see what we can achieve in the mountains with this strong team," van Aert concluded.