Almost 12 months ago to the day, Wout van Aert was left sitting against an anonymous patch of grass against a barrier in Waregem, with all but certain victory in Dwars door Vlaanderen for Visma-Lease a Bike thrown away, and a Visma three-against-one finish with Neilson Powless lost.
Visma-Lease a Bike put on an exhibition to get three riders up the road in the last 71km. With the EF Education-EasyPost rider following, Van Aert told Tiesj Benoot and Matteo Jorgenson not to attack, but to instead wait to lead him out in the sprint.
When it came to the finish, and with everyone expecting him to dominate Powless, Van Aert cramped and was left to think of just what a mistake he had made in wanting victory for himself too much, as Powless celebrated jubilantly just metres in front of him.
“It’s quite simple, I wanted this victory really bad. It was me making the decision quite early on that I wanted to sprint,” said Van Aert as he relived the heartbreak. “I was just too selfish and afraid I would come into a situation where I would not be able to go for the first place, and that’s a big mistake.”
Van Aert returns to the Dwars door Vlaanderen alongside a strong squad with Matthew Brennan and Christophe Laporte offering different finishing options. Visma certainly learned their lesson last year, and they won’t be looking to employ similar tactics if a situation like that arises again in Wednesday’s race.
“We’re looking forward to racing. I think indeed, we have a very strong team there. Hopefully we can make the race, and we finish it off better than last year,” Visma’s head of racing Grischa Niermann told Cyclingnews on the eve of the race.
“We even have, I would say, to play it safer if you get into a situation like that. We shouldn’t ever go to the sprint again, because if you arrive solo, you know you’ve won.
