© BELGIAN
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Wout van Aert was perfectly piloted in the streets of Orléans, but had to leave the stage win in Paris-Nice to the faster Fabio Jakobsen.
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Hugo Coorevits, Vincent Van Genechten
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The Belgian champion fell on the way. “It was a stupid fall, like any fall is,” said Van Aert. “They fell pretty hard for me. Suddenly I braked hard and I reacted too late. Before I realized it, I was on the ground. Luckily I didn’t take too much damage. It looks worse now than I thought, but it wasn’t really painful for the rest of the day. It will be a bit stiff, but it’s just scrapes.”
–The battered knee of Van Aert. — © hc
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Afterwards, Van Aert was beaten by Jakobsen. “I was already pretty much in bloc when Christophe (Laporte, ed.) started his lead out”, it sounds. “I think we surprised Quick-Step when we transferred the train. We were behind them. When Zdenek sent Stybar out, we went over it. It was a perfect lead out, but I just missed it. Jakobsen was stronger. I was really on the limit when I had to accelerate and didn’t have enough surplus.
“I was also hoping for greater time differences,” admits Van Aert. “But everything came back about. Or a lot. I’m happy, because the legs were good. I was able to ride a nice race. The team was really ready for the action and we forced it ourselves a few times, but there was just not enough surrender. There were a little too few riders from the classics in the front in my opinion, and a little too many GC riders to get really big breaks. In the end it turned out to be a good day for Primoz Roglic, who came through unscathed.”
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