Belgian allrounder star Wout van Aert is expected to play a key role in supporting Visma-Lease A Bike leader Jonas Vingegaard in the upcoming Tour de France, but the allrounder has warned his rivals that he, too, will have his own chance to shine from Saturday onwards.
Fifth in the National Championships in Belgium on Sunday, like Vingegaard, Van Aert is on the comeback trail from a bad crash this spring, in his case when he fell heavily and suffered multiple fractures in Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Forced to skip the Giro d’Italia, Van Aert returned to racing in the Tour of Norway, claiming third on the final stage, and after taking part in his first race in Belgium in three months on Sunday, he will now head to the Tour de France.
Van Aert insisted that taking a top five in the Nationals did not mean anything in terms of the Tour de France, given the level of competition he expects to face there is so much higher. But as he explained before the Nationals, should he feel good in France, he would switch out from 100% teamwork to combining that role with going for his own opportunities as well.
"At one point [during altitude camp] I indicated that I'd rather be there in the Tour than not, and my role will depend on how my legs feel," he told reporters.
"If I feel good, I will get opportunities from the team and I will take them fully. Otherwise, I will play an important [team] role in the team. I hope my condition will improve, too, during the Tour.”
Whether or not Van Aert can go for a tenth Tour stage win of his palmares remains to be seen, therefore, but the Belgian insisted that "I feel good and my form is much better. I can train without any limits, although I sometimes still have some back pain.”
“It has been around for a long time and we are working every day to ease the muscle tension. It's annoying, but I can't complain. I can train normally and have been able to make progress."
That progress was visible again in his encouraging result in Belgium, but Van Aert played down reading too much into a race without any foreign rivals present. He said that in any case, while he opted to wait for the bunch sprint, he was too far back in the last kilometre. The effort he made to get back on terms with winner Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny), Jasper Phiipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and the other top Belgian fastmen then cost him in the dash for the line. “In any case,” he added, “Compared to them [in a sprint], I know I’m an underdog.”
Overall, though, he said “I had good legs. I don't think I'm at the top level yet, but it's reassuring to be one of the best again. Now I'm going to do some training and rest in the coming days, and then maybe” - he added with a smile - “fly to Italy.”
He did not, he said, feel more confident as a result of finishing fifth. “Not really, the Belgian Championship is one of the most fiercely contested Nationals, but at the end of the day, it’s still a Nationals.”
“It’s a much higher level in the Tour. I am satisfied with what I have achieved in this race, but this says nothing about the Tour.”
Such was his climbing form in the 2022 Tour de France that Van Aert was even able to drop Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) two years ago in the Pyrenees. But in a recent interview with Het Laatste Nieuws, his Belgian teammate Tiesj Benoot was adamant that Van Aert was still a long way from being in such good condition this time round
"Wout has made progress in recent weeks, but he’s not at the level of last year and certainly not that of two years ago," he said.
Even last week before the Championships, Visma-Lease A Bike team management were upbeat about Van Aert’s chances in the Tour. In a veiled reference to the situation which arose on stage 2 of the 2023 Tour when Van Aert lost a chance to go for a stage win because of Vingegaard’s failure to help him at one point, Merijn Zeeman even joked in an interview that “I hope that we will get some controversy because it’ll be good for the documentary at the end of the season.”
Subsequently giving his real opinion on the matter, Zeeman said, “Wout called me and Grischa [Niermann, sports director] to say he was very motivated to go to the Tour, to do something special for the team, with the team, and that means with Jonas fighting for yellow.”
“So like every other year, Wout is the best helper Jonas can have. Or before that, that [former teammate and GC specialist] Primož Roglič can have. He really makes a difference as a rider as a person and as a leader. It would be fantastic if he could win a stage as well, a champion like him really deserves that.”
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