Tour de France 2023 – Wout Van Aert in trouble in the fight for the stage victory: “Time is running out”

“For Wout Van Aert, time is running out for a stage win in the 2023 Tour de France,” says Eurosport pundit Dan Lloyd, who is still convinced the Team Jumbo-Visma Belgian will make his class in the second half of the big Loops will prove it.

Since being slowed down by Victor Lafay (Cofidis) on stage 2, Van Aert has become surprisingly calm. Despite his versatile qualities, the 28-year-old has not yet been able to overcome the sprint to the finish line. On the one hand, it’s because he faithfully supported teammate and favorite Jonas Vingegaard, on the other hand, he missed the punch in the last few meters of those parts of the day when he could lead alone.

He experienced his most recent disappointment in stage 11, when he was clearly outdistanced in the sprint final by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and finished in ninth place.

“It’s very difficult to point fingers at him,” Lloyd said. do what he wanted.”

He didn’t “click” at Van Aert”, Lloyd explains the all-rounder’s meager daily win record (0): “Then you hesitate, like in the Moulins sprint, because it’s about fractions of a second. If things go well, make the right decision. When things don’t go so well, you procrastinate a little too long. I’m sure the knot will break at some point.”

In return, Lloyd Lloyd admitted that Van Aert “would have run out of time for a stage win”. In 2021, the cyclo-cross specialist became just the third professional cyclist in history to win a time trial, a mountain stage and a sprint on the Tour. In 2022, he was the dominant rider in the Tour of France with a series of spectacular attacks and a selfless teamwork which led to six stage wins for his Jumbo-Visma team, including three for himself and the triumph in the fight for the green jersey.

Van Aert thinks too much

Such was his dominance that he has been asked to refocus and take the yellow jersey on a future tour. Robbie McEwen, 12-time Tour stage winner, wondered if Van Aert was “worrying too much” these days. “Jasper is in winning mode, he doesn’t have to think about what he’s doing. He just does it,” said the former sprint specialist from Australia.

“Wout, on the other hand, seems to be thinking, ‘What’s my next step?’ And if you take the time to think about it, you’re either making mistakes or someone else has already done something to change that. It’s just not keeping up with the times, whereas Jasper is always ready to think.”