We also understood that the more he was asked to work for Vingegaard and his team, the fewer would be his chances for individual victories. His last Classics victory came in 2023, in the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, and his last significant wins of any kind were the three stage wins in last year’s Vuelta a España – before a horrendous crash on a descent on stage 16 put an end to his quest for another Grand Tour green jersey, which he was poised to win.
That was van Aert’s second serious crash of the year, after he fell on an ascent in the Dwars door Vlaanderen in late March, which put him out of commission for two months. Two serious crashes in a year are a lot of misfortune, and recovering requires patience and hard work and, perhaps most important, the ability to put it all behind you. But that may become more difficult with age. And I wonder if, at age 30, van Aert may have lost the ability to rebound from severe setbacks. Fear of sprinting?
I say this based on the evidence I have seen so far. It’s early days still, of course, but from what we’ve seen of the Belgian, he seems to be far from his best and worryingly risk-averse, as if he has lost confidence in his ability to handle a bike. In both Saturday’s Omloop Nieuwsblad and Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, he was often out of position at the back of the peloton […]
Continue reading the original article at: www.welovecycling.com