Geert Verdickt, singer of Buurman, could hardly believe his own eyes when he saw Van Aert fluttering solo to victory in Calais. “How does that person do that, isn’t that unbelievable?”
Analyst Bert De Backer is also in awe. “I became very silent about that performance. It started with Nathan Van Hooydonck. When they started the descent, they were fighting with 3 to 4 teams next to each other to be the first to turn in.”
“It was a very important corner, because if you were in 30th place, you would have lost 30 seconds on the first, so to speak. Tiesj also drove his best minutes of the year in my opinion.”
“These guys then have the luxury of being allowed to send out, but Wout still has to start his 10 kilometers. I don’t think Wout will have ridden much faster this year than on that climb.”
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Jonas Vingegaard just couldn’t pick up his wagon at Cap Blanc-Nez with teammate Van Aert. Primoz Roglic certainly not, the Slovenian was remarkably far on the climb. A bad sign? “I think it was more the positioning,” says Benji Naesen, one of the founders of the Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast.
“Roglic seems appropriate for such a climb, but in Milan-Sanremo he also struggled with positioning on the Cipressa and Poggio. As a result, he missed something extra on the Poggio to be able to do something.”
“Maybe that was the case here as well and he had to put in too much effort from a bad position to get to the front and he couldn’t anymore. Or he made a tactical decision.”
De Backer nuances this. “There isn’t much room either. Van Hooydonck was first, then Benoot in the wheel, then Van Aert and then Vingegaard. Then you already have four. You can’t pay with everyone on the team in the first five.”
Mama Ivonne thought Van Aert’s victory in Calais was the best of his career. According to Benji Naesen, the best is yet to come. “He has already won many great victories: the Ventoux, Champs-Elysées, now this stage. But
the most beautiful will come in Paris-Roubaix.”
“He did this with the team,” De Backer adds. “That also plays a part in the experience. He crosses the finish line solo, but very bluntly they almost ridiculed the entire peloton with the team. I think that feels good.”
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