In addition to taking his third stage victory of the 2022 Tour de France on Saturday afternoon, Wout van Aert added another prize to his and Jumbo-Visma's haul at the race as the selection panel awarded him the title of the Tour's most combative rider, "super-combatif".
That achievement comes after three weeks of stirring performances by the 27-year-old Belgian, who won three stages en route to putting together a dominant green jersey campaign.
Throughout the past three weeks, Van Aert has consistently charged up the road, rolling the dice in several big breakaway moves.
Van Aert was awarded the daily combativity prizes on stages 6 and 18. On the former, he attacked time and again in the early goings while wearing the yellow jersey, ultimately establishing the day's main break and holding on until the final few kilometers. On the latter, he again instigated the early break on one of the most challenging stages of the Tour, spent most of the day off the front, and then dug deep to work for his Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard, who was able to drop Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on the final climb.
Scattered among those and other impressive attacking efforts were his stage victories: a sprint win on stage 4, a late solo bid for the win on stage 8, and his time trial win on stage 20.
On Saturday, as his third stage win was being sealed, the selection committee determined that Van Aert deserved the "super combatif" title, confirming him as the most aggressive rider throughout the race. His efforts will thus be awarded with a cool €20,000 cash prize, in addition to the various other prizes he racked up in the doing.
All told, the exploits of Van Aert and presumed-overall winner Vingegaard, give Jumbo-Visma quite the haul this Tour. Barring some sort of catastrophe on Sunday's final sprint stage into Paris, the Dutch squad will finish the race with the yellow, green, and polka dot jerseys, the combativity award, and at least six stage victories, with the potential for one more on the Champs-Élysées.
