So.
Wout van Aert had an excellent season. His Tour Treble is the shining jewel of his career so far.
Even some of his 'disappointments' argue in his favour. His silver medals in the Cyclocross World Championships + Olympic Road Race + World Championships Time Trial are, taken together, a truly amazing achievement (more so than 'winning' Amstel or grabbing the Belgian National RR)
And yet....
An interesting pattern has emerged in one day races.
Now, obviously, he can't win them all. Even if bookmakers insist on making him the favourite every time.
But it can't be denied that in several super important races, which were ridden hard early on, he simply seemed to lack the extra acceleration to join the strongest riders in the finale.
I recall this happening in
- Strade Bianche
- E3
- Ronde van Vlaanderen
- Tour de France Stage 7
- World's Road Race
- Paris Roubaix
Now.
I can think of several reasons to explain away his 'failures' in each individual race.
1) He didn't peak for Strade and lacked sleep because of his newborn baby.
2) Riding Tirreno way too hard cost him his extra punch in Ronde and E3.
3) He punctured at E3 and had terrible team support.
4) He wasn't as strong in the first Tour week due to appendicitis ruining his preparation
5) The stress due the insane pressure at the World's in Leuven took away his edge
6) He was over his peak at Roubaix (and was afraid to ride the wet cobbles hard after losing his glasses )
7) In E3, Ronde, Tour Stage 7 and Roubaix, he had to deal with a Van der Poel who seemed content to spend way too much energy in order keep a gap on Wout, even if it ruined his own chances in the final sprint.
So it could well be that next year, with many of these factors absent (he'll surely not ride Tirreno as hard, might even skip the Cyclocross CX, will have a much stronger team, won't have a newborn baby, VdP will take other rivals into consideration too), he dominates the spring, winning three monuments.
Or maybe, there's a deeper issue here. Something we've seen in Cyclocross all too often: yes he has an amazing engine. Yes he is able to fight and suffer hard even in losing position. But when it comes to riding that one extra super fast lap on top of all that effort, putting in that one extra acceleration to crush all opposition, his legs often don't respond.
Is that his one handicap? IMO, that is the big question for next year's spring.