"You can tell that everyone is suffering" - Blistering heat having real affects at 2024 Vuelta a Espana according to Wout van Aert

A Grand Tour is never easy, especially the Vuelta a Espana where flat roads are a real rarity. At the 2024 edition of the race however, the difficulty for the riders has been exacerbated by the blistering summer sun and the resultant sweltering heat.

"You can tell that everyone is suffering from it," says the Green Jersey wearing Wout van Aert in conversation with VTM ahead of stage 5, where again the heat is looking like playing a factor after a brutally steep final climb on stage 4 saw roads as vicious as 20%+ and heat rising as high as 40 degrees Celsius. "Yesterday was also slow racing, because you know that you will immediately go into the red if you start too early. It is certainly something to take into account."

On the road meanwhile, Van Aert, who took his first win in six months on stage 3, is likely to have the third instalment of his sprint rivalry with Alpecin-Deceuninck's Aussie sprint star, Kaden Groves on stage 5. So far, the record is 1-1 with each rider getting the better of the other in a sprint finish, although it's Van Aert, who as mentioned, is currently leading the points classification.

“That according to Groves it is more of a finish for him than for me? That is good, right. It is about who wins and there are others in it too,” Van Aert looked ahead before the start of the day's action. “The first sprints were slightly uphill, now it is flat and long straight. It is definitely a different sprint. I always follow my feeling in the last kilometre. Thinking too much has not yielded me much in the past.”