Wout van Aert did the impossible
So you might know Wout van Aert by now. He just won three stages of the Tour de France. And it’s still strange for me to see him riding so superb on the road. I “know” Wout van Aert from Cyclocross. Several years ago I started watch Cyclocross where Wout van Aert was always battling with Matthieu van der Poel. And there Matthieu van der Poel almost always won. Because of that I didn’t have Wout van Aert on the list of great talents. But I think I forgot that Matthieu van der Poel is a unique cyclist himself who happened to be just a little bit better that Wout van Aert in Cyclocross most of the time.
What did Wout van Aert do?
When I was a little kid watching that American bozo winning every Tour de France I was fascinated by the sprinters as well as the mountain goats. I wanted to be like them, but back then it was no questing that you only could be one. It seemed to be impossible to win stages in a bunch sprint and also be the first on top of a mountain. Wout van Aert just did that. He won the probably hardest mountain stage of this years Tour de France where the route went twice over the famous Mont Ventoux, he won the most prestigious sprinter stage in Paris and , as a bonus, he also won a Time Trial stage. That’s completely crazy. This guy is a little bit rewriting the rules of modern road cycling.
If more riders like Wout van Aert will come up in the future it might change the stage races. Nobody can ever be sure when he will be a danger. On a good day he is able to follow almost every move and no one can be sure that he is not a thread today. Maybe Wout van Aert can’t do that every day and he can’t win the mountain jersey neither the sprinters jersey with his current riding style. But for stage wins Wout van Aert will be a thread every day from now on.
Post image by flickr user Ronan Caroff.