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Teams & Riders Official Wout Van Aert thread

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Netserk

Netserk

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Devil's Elbow

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People always find some sort of excuse every time he isn’t quite as good relative to the other mutants in the monuments/Worlds as he is elsewhere, or in other words, every monument bar the Sanremo he won. Hampered by a minor crash, not in peak form, shouldn’t have trusted his sprint, and so on. It’s time to come to terms with the notion that they simply aren’t truly his forte, because at some point it isn’t down to random chance anymore and I feel like we’ve reached it by now.
 
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ChewbaccaDefense

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As any Wout fan should admit, it would be great for the follow-up to match the pre-race hype. He just hasn't been able to do that, and the frustrating thing is that it seemes a significant portion of that is mental. He gets outplayed a lot of times. This year's cross worlds is a perfect example...he just forgot to sprint. He made the last turn, and should have stood and sprinted, and instead, he waited to see what MVDP would do, and MVDP took that opportunity to do what he does best.
 
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Lequack

Lequack

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He fought well. I wonder how he would've gone if he hadn't crashed, it always take a bit out of you.

FsuaBs7WYAIvWat
 
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Rackham

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ChewbaccaDefense said:
As any Wout fan should admit, it would be great for the follow-up to match the pre-race hype. He just hasn't been able to do that, and the frustrating thing is that it seemes a significant portion of that is mental. He gets outplayed a lot of times. This year's cross worlds is a perfect example...he just forgot to sprint. He made the last turn, and should have stood and sprinted, and instead, he waited to see what MVDP would do, and MVDP took that opportunity to do what he does best.
Click to expand...

As a Rogla fan I can totally sympathize with Van Aert here.

For a few years now both have followed a similar seasonal pattern: miss the number one objective (TdF for Rog, Flanders & Monuments for WvA), then absolutely smash other races & have a successful season. So Van Aert will be back, maybe next weekend, maybe later in the TdF. Who knows, maybe he'll win the Worlds this year. But just like with Rog, there's just too much underlying class & quality in this rider for him to not win big races whether he misses his number one objective or not.

And cycling these days... is insane at the top. Pogacar was otherworldly today, as was Van der Poel. So it's not like WvA can have any regrets (i.e. like 3 years ago when he lost the sprint against VdP).
 
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Bolder

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ChewbaccaDefense said:
As any Wout fan should admit, it would be great for the follow-up to match the pre-race hype. He just hasn't been able to do that, and the frustrating thing is that it seemes a significant portion of that is mental. He gets outplayed a lot of times. This year's cross worlds is a perfect example...he just forgot to sprint. He made the last turn, and should have stood and sprinted, and instead, he waited to see what MVDP would do, and MVDP took that opportunity to do what he does best.
Click to expand...
Agree. I'd like to see him try to make the race against the best riders more often. So what if he blows up? He's already got enough second place finishes to last the rest of his career.

I really don't think he lacks the physical tools to win any classic, except Lombardia. And even then, we saw what he did in T-A a few years ago.
 
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ChewbaccaDefense

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Rackham said:
As a Rogla fan I can totally sympathize with Van Aert here.

For a few years now both have followed a similar seasonal pattern: miss the number one objective (TdF for Rog, Flanders & Monuments for WvA), then absolutely smash other races & have a successful season. So Van Aert will be back, maybe next weekend, maybe later in the TdF. Who knows, maybe he'll win the Worlds this year. But just like with Rog, there's just too much underlying class & quality in this rider for him to not win big races whether he misses his number one objective or not.

And cycling these days... is insane at the top. Pogacar was otherworldly today, as was Van der Poel. So it's not like WvA can have any regrets (i.e. like 3 years ago when he lost the sprint against VdP).
Click to expand...
And Rogla has had much worse luck IMO. Sure, Wout getting Covid last year before RVV was bad, but watching how smashed Rogla was in the Tour was heartbreaking. I have enjoyed his spring so far, though. I liked that he was able to toy with Remco a bit, and play a smart game. This year's Giro should be a great watch. I wish he was riding the Tour, however, as I actually think that this spring campaign for Pog may take something out of him in July, and I don't think Vingegaard is the rider Rogla is.

EDIT: That being said, I don't think Pog was at 100% today, and that's scary.
 
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ChewbaccaDefense

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" Tactically it went pretty well for us for a good part of the race but we ended up man against man faster than expected ," lamented van Aert. " At that time, we saw that Pogacar and Van der Poel were stronger. On the Hotond-Kruisberg, I was surprised by Van der Poel's attack. I was perhaps thrown towards the coast but the legs did the talking on this one. Then I tried to get back to the lead with Van Hooydonck but I knew it was over for the win and I wasn't able to keep up with the best on Old Quaremont."

Disappointed at not being on the podium, Van Aert will now regain physical and mental strength for Paris-Roubaix. "We will turn the page tomorrow. I will start to think about it calmly and do not intend to hide next week" , concluded van Aert.

www.rtbf.be

'Les jambes ont parlé' reconnaît Wout van Aert après un Tour des Flandres où il s’est retrouvé 'trop vite homme contre homme'

Wout van Aert n’a pas pu rivaliser avec Tadej Pogacar et Mathieu Van der Poel dans le final du Tour des Flandres dimanche....
www.rtbf.be www.rtbf.be

He really does always show class...much more than his detractors.
 
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Ricco'

Ricco'

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ChewbaccaDefense said:
" Tactically it went pretty well for us for a good part of the race but we ended up man against man faster than expected ,"
Click to expand...

What? I'd say it was even later than expected. It was 99% certain that Pogacar would launch on the 2nd Oude Kwaremont and only the big 3 would be able to follow. But they could keep Laporte with them for a few km and even had Van Hooydonck available to wait for them, so they had 2/3 guys there to work as a team.

When were they expecting Pogacar to attack? On the last Kwaremont?
 
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theyoungest

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Bolder said:
I think he suffers from some indecisive tactics and maybe races by the book too much. Pog and Mvdp are much more free thinking in their strategy.
Click to expand...
The same goes for his team. Tactically they seem more on the ball when Van Aert is not there. When it's all about Van Aert they race a little too conservatively. If you have someone like Benoot, use him. Don't let him wait until Pogacar attacks, then it's too late.
 
Red Rick

Red Rick

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Devil's Elbow said:
People always find some sort of excuse every time he isn’t quite as good relative to the other mutants in the monuments/Worlds as he is elsewhere, or in other words, every monument bar the Sanremo he won. Hampered by a minor crash, not in peak form, shouldn’t have trusted his sprint, and so on. It’s time to come to terms with the notion that they simply aren’t truly his forte, because at some point it isn’t down to random chance anymore and I feel like we’ve reached it by now.
Click to expand...
Are we homogenizing all monuments, all tier 1 one day races, or all 250 km+ races?

That's not to say there's insufficient data for RVV specifically, but I also think the group of races is very diverse.

And in terms of rider type MvdP and Pogacar would seem to be on opposing ends of Van Aert, so in some way it's kinda hard to wrap my head around both of them being better in RVV specifically.
 
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