Teams & Riders Official Wout Van Aert thread

[Blanco]

I been saying Leuven was his chance to win the WC and he probably would have done so if the team had been riding for him, which they should have been on that route. Would have been a great story and probably the biggest win of his career, on home turf as well. Too bad that young fella had to ruin it for him with his sabotage ride that day.

Did someone stopped him from going after Alaphilippe?

 

[Salvarani]

Did someone stopped him from going after Alaphilippe?

The race was made harder than it should have been and his team could have neutralized by controlling it for him.

He wasnt protected nor backed fully by everyone, when he should have been in this year. He had been great.

It was his and Belgium to lose going into it but it shouldnt have been in this way. He was sabotaged. It is just my opinion.

 

[Blanco]

The race was made harder than it should have been and his team could have neutralized by controlling it for him.

He wasnt protected nor backed fully by everyone, when he should have been in this year. He had been great.

It was his and Belgium to lose going into it but it shouldnt have been in this way. He was sabotaged. It is just my opinion.

When a main opponent goes, you go with him, look at Van Der Poel yesterday on Taaienberg. Or if you know 100% that your team is capable of pulling it back, which was certainly not the case when his strongest teammate was on the attack for 50km, plus it is a team which rides together once a year, so you never know for sure.
It is true that Belgium should've ridden differently, primarily in Wout's service, but it is aslo true that Alaphilippe was hands down strongest rider of the day, and I'm not sure how the outcome would be any different.

 

[Salvarani]

When a main opponent goes, you go with him, look at Van Der Poel yesterday on Taaienberg. Or if you know 100% that your team is capable of pulling it back, which was certainly not the case when his strongest teammate was on the attack for 50km, plus it is a team which rides together once a year, so you never know for sure.
It is true that Belgium should've ridden differently, primarily in Wout's service, but it is aslo true that Alaphilippe was hands down strongest rider of the day, and I'm not sure how the outcome would be any different.

We will never know the real outcome, doesnt change the fact he was sabotaged imo.

 

[Blanco]

We will never know the real outcome, doesnt change the fact he was sabotaged imo.

He was, I agree, mostly by Remco, but he also made some bad decisions himself.

 

[Monsi]

The race was made harder than it should have been and his team could have neutralized by controlling it for him.

He wasnt protected nor backed fully by everyone, when he should have been in this year. He had been great.

It was his and Belgium to lose going into it but it shouldnt have been in this way. He was sabotaged. It is just my opinion.

At that distance to the finish, Wout should've went after him if he had the legs. The fact that he couldn't tells me his legs were just gone there.

 

[Salvarani]

At that distance to the finish, Wout should've went after him if he had the legs. The fact that he couldn't tells me his legs were just gone there.

I dont agree.

I think the lead-up to the race greatly affects him.

I think what happens in the race greatly affects him.

The team should backed him in this race, that year.

I think he performs better with having the team fully backing him and Belgium super-strong team controlling it. No way he loses a reduced sprint here, imo.

 

[kn0s]

I stop reading when you included Ganna as a rider of the best era.
WVA is not the best all around rider in the world. It is Pogacar. He is almost having 100 wins st 26 years old, when WVA has 49...

Maybe reading the thing would help with comprehension. You seem to miss the point completely. I'll give you a hint, it's about being spread thin not about wins. I think we can all agree that WVA has been competitive in more areas than Pogacar has and that was the point in my opinion anyway.

 

[AmRacer]

Maybe reading the thing would help with comprehension. You seem to miss the point completely. I'll give you a hint, it's about being spread thin not about wins. I think we can all agree that WVA has been competitive in more areas than Pogacar has and that was the point in my opinion anyway.

GT GC? MTF?

 

[Peyroteo94]

Maybe reading the thing would help with comprehension. You seem to miss the point completely. I'll give you a hint, it's about being spread thin not about wins. I think we can all agree that WVA has been competitive in more areas than Pogacar has and that was the point in my opinion anyway.

I don't agree to be honest and I think more people think like me.
Pogacar can win hilly classics, mountains, TTs, cobbled classics. In what sense is WVA a better all around rider when we talk about road racing?
For some reason, Pogacar has almost twice the wins of WVA.

 

[kn0s]

I don't agree to be honest and I think more people think like me.
Pogacar can win hilly classics, mountains, TTs, cobbled classics. In what sense is WVA a better all around rider when we talk about road racing?
For some reason, Pogacar has almost twice the wins of WVA.

You are still focused on the winning aspects of it. That was not the point. WVA is not winning GTs that is obvious. He does other things there. But at his peak you could expect him to compete in just about everything else. Pogi has not done battle with MvdP in the off-season, or contested a bunch sprint. or gone up against the big boys in a TT WC. Pogi also doesn't have to or possibly want to, help anyone else win anything.

The point was being spread thin, doing too much.

 

[Peyroteo94]

You are still focused on the winning aspects of it. That was not the point. WVA is not winning GTs that is obvious. He does other things there. But at his peak you could expect him to compete in just about everything else. Pogi has not done battle with MvdP in the off-season, or contested a bunch sprint. or gone up against the big boys in a TT WC. Pogi also doesn't have to or possibly want to, help anyone else win anything.

The point was being spread thin, doing too much.

So you really think WVA can compete with the big boys in a MTF? If you are saying Pogacar can't compete with the best in WC TTs (in fact, he never really prepared to be competitive there but I still think he can't win a flat TT) but when you talk about Wout, you forget the competition in a mountain stage? Interesting! I could also add he never really competed for the win in a hilly monument too but I don't need to go that far.

 

[Rackham]

When I see pictures of Van Aert's knee, I wonder whether everyone is actually overthinking the problem.

His scars are gnarly as hell.

 

[Peyroteo94]

When I see pictures of Van Aert's knee, I wonder whether everyone is actually overthinking the problem.

His scars are gnarly as hell.

Dumoulin's vibes.

 

[kn0s]

So you really think WVA can compete with the big boys in a MTF? If you are saying Pogacar can't compete with the best in WC TTs (in fact, he never really prepared to be competitive there but I still think he can't win a flat TT) but when you talk about Wout, you forget the competition in a mountain stage? Interesting! I could also add he never really competed for the win in a hilly monument too but I don't need to go that far.

I apologize. I had no intention of turning the conversation to 'best" and GOAT fetish stuff. That is about the most uninteresting discussion to have. I found the original post well thought out and would rather the discussion was about the points in it. This forum has more than enough "Pogacar best" slob to go a round.

 

[Peyroteo94]

I apologize. I had no intention of turning the conversation to 'best" and GOAT fetish stuff. That is about the most uninteresting discussion to have. I found the original post well thought out and would rather the discussion was about the points in it. This forum has more than enough "Pogacar best" slob to go a round.

We agree to disagree but you can't claim things like: "we can all agree WVA is the best all around rider in the world", specially when there is a rider like Pogacar racing.

 

[kn0s]

We agree to disagree but you can't claim things like: "we can all agree WVA is the best all around rider in the world", specially when there is a rider like Pogacar racing.

We can absolutely agree to disagree, but we can't agree that that is what I said. Again it is missing the point completely, possibly because it really has nothing to do with Pogacar.

 

[Peyroteo94]

We can absolutely agree to disagree, but we can't agree that that is what I said. Again it is missing the point completely, possibly because it really has nothing to do with Pogacar.

Maybe reading the thing would help with comprehension. You seem to miss the point completely. I'll give you a hint, it's about being spread thin not about wins. I think we can all agree that WVA has been competitive in more areas than Pogacar has and that was the point in my opinion anyway.

What does this even mean?

 

[theyoungest]

When I see pictures of Van Aert's knee, I wonder whether everyone is actually overthinking the problem.

His scars are gnarly as hell.

To be fair, he's had a much worse injury where a French hospital totally botched the operation, there were fears he couldn't even walk anymore let alone ride his bike professionally... and he came back from that way better than he is now, in a shorter time span.

Also, his cross season, while not exactly great, was already better than they expected. I think we can expect him to be a bit better in Flanders and Roubaix... but MVDP and Pogacar level, no way. He already wasn't at that level, and he certainly isn't now.

 

[Arvid Falk]

To be fair, he's had a much worse injury where a French hospital totally botched the operation, there were fears he couldn't even walk anymore let alone ride his bike professionally... and he came back from that way better than he is now, in a shorter time span.

Also, his cross season, while not exactly great, was already better than they expected. I think we can expect him to be a bit better in Flanders and Roubaix... but MVDP and Pogacar level, no way. He already wasn't at that level, and he certainly isn't now.

Agree, he looked quite good in some of the later crosses. I don't give him much of a chance against Pog and MVDP in RVV but I won't write him off just yet in PR. In 2023 he had that late puncture, otherwise he looked damn good that year. What I might fear is that MVDP is stronger now than then and that WVA haven't had the same progression.

 

[Wvv]

It kind of annoys me that they don't add Gent-Wevelgem to his schedule, when they actually do it for Jorgensen.

 

[tobydawq]

MvdP Remco Pogi Wout

Flatt TT Remco
Cobbles Mathieu
RVV Mathieu Pogi
Ardennes Pogi
Stage races Pogi
GT Pogi
MSR Mathieu
MTF Pogi
Mountains Pogi
Very hilly TT Pogi
Cross Mathieu
.
.
.

Very convenient to leave out Sprint.

 

[AmRacer]

Very convenient to leave out Sprint.

Please note the dots

Sprint goes to Mathieu

 

[meat puppet]

Visma had it right in the CN interview before the E3, I think, only for the wrong reasons. There Visma called their approach "tried and tested", which it definitely is.

 

[tobydawq]

Please note the dots

Sprint goes to Mathieu

No it doesn't.