Not content with spending four days in yellow during the first week of the Tour de France, Wout van Aert added another stage win to his collection as the race hit Lausanne in Switzerland for stage 8, further bolstering what looks more and more like an insurmountable green jersey lead in the process.
The finish to the stage reared up 5km above the city on the shores of Lake Geneva, handing the riders a kilometre at 9.5% to contend with as they passed the 98-year-old Stade Olympique on the way to the line.
It was a prime opportunity for Van Aert to add more points to his tally, especially on a day where no pure sprinters would be able to compete. His 11 points at the intermediate sprint, 47km into the stage, were later accompanied by 50 more in Lausanne. That's a total of 61 while his closest rival for green, Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), took just nine at the intermediate and none at the finish.
"Longwy [stage 6] was a good opportunity, but it turned out slightly different," Van Aert said after the stage. "Today was a big chance to take a lot of points on a few of my competitors. So, I'm really glad my team put everything in it to chase down the breakaway. Then you have to finish it off."
The Belgian, who now has 264 points to Jakobsen's 149, and surely has Peter Sagan's 2018 record total of 447 in his sights, thanked his countryman and teammate Nathan Van Hooydonck for his work on stage 8. The 26-year-old pulled on the front of the peloton for kilometre after kilometre to help chase down the three-man breakaway.
"Tonight, I will say a big thank you to him and hand him a glass of champagne," Van Aert said. "But for sure, I'm already thinking about a big and nice present for all my teammates and maybe a double present for Nathan because today he pulled alone.
"Then one guy from BikeExchange was tired, another was tired, then a third had to come and still Nathan was on the front. So, it was a really impressive job and I think he has confirmed 100% his Tour de France selection – he already did a thousand times of course, but today it was impressive."
Van Aert said that, of the stages following the Tour's long-haul transfer from Denmark down south to France, he saw opportunities for stage wins on every day apart from Friday's summit finish at La Super Planche des Belles Filles. Two wins from five stages isn't bad, then.
"That's five stages and won two out of five stages, so that's crazy stats in the Tour de France," he said. "So yeah, definitely today was on our mind to grow a lot of points in the points classification and I think I have a good margin now. Hopefully from now on I can grab points here and there and watch my competitors. That's a bit the plan."
Van Aert is not only adding points to his green jersey haul with these wins, but he's also bringing a "good vibe" to Jumbo-Visma – as he has done with six wins across the previous three Tours. More success is only a positive, after all.
"I believe it brings a good vibe in the team," he said. "It's maybe a better question for my teammates, but I think all the guys in every team but especially in our team like to race for the win, like the race with a plan, and are really committed to give their all 100%.
"I did four TDFs now and was always able to take a stage win and I always felt like it brought some confidence and a really nice atmosphere. And I believe we're trying to do this again."
