Teams & Riders Official Wout Van Aert thread

[KenFiamingo]

Seems like Visma has WVA's shape trajectory right, still, I wonder what' it would have been if they moved the altitude training a bit earlier, skipping Het Nieuwsblad and start racing as of Milano-Torino/Sanremo. Perhaps it would have served him in terms of explosiveness & intervals.

And i still don't get why they made him skip Gent-Wevelgem.

 

[Lequack]

 

[Keldergoat]

A WvA in shape is just an asset to each and every race. Rode smart, used the team numerical advantage to its best, didn't let himself be cooked by two aliens on the Koppenberg and Kruisberg. That deserved a podium spot.

Also, what a race by Benoot. He was one of the strongest in the race, being out there in the fierce wind for more than 100km and still finishing 6th.

 

[Lequack]

 

[Mayomaniac]

A WvA in shape is just an asset to each and every race. Rode smart, used the team numerical advantage to its best, didn't let himself be cooked by two aliens on the Koppenberg and Kruisberg. That deserved a podium spot.

Also, what a race by Benoot. He was one of the strongest in the race, being out there in the fierce wind for more than 100km and still finishing 6th.

The team has said that Wout will be the leader for Roubaix. That is reasonable, given that he should be even better in that race, but the team will be weaker. No Benoot and no Son Jorge, so unless van Baarle suddenly finds his 2021-2022 leg they'll be a rather weak team. Wout should just try to follow moves by vdP and Pogacar and let their teams do the chasing.

 

[ChasingPotatoes]

He looked, at one time, like he was going backwards (Paterberg, Koppenberg, Taaienberg combo).
But he just didn't weaken while others got weaker in the end.
I don't see him ever win RVV, he is just getting too sluggish on the climbs. But he still has that formidable powerful motor, and when well-trained, well-fed and well-rested, he shouldn't worry about the final hour of monuments. He's made for 260K but not those explosive uphill cobbles (anymore). I hope he gets a win at Roubaix, at least once in his career.

I said earlier he looked slow on the hills, but actually, I dug a bit deeper into the strava files.

Pog and MdvP rode their best ever ascents of Kwaremont (second ascent) and Koppenberg.
Pog now has KOMs on both, but MvdP in his wheel could have Koppenberg (and sure has Kwaremont as he had to close a gap, out of position), but until MvdP uploads his files (after his career?), we don't know for sure.

WvA matched that second Kwaremont ascent, and while he couldn't follow on Koppenberg (and Paterberg and Taaienberg), there really is no shame in that: his ascents were good / as good as some of his previous editions, it's just that he rides against two of the best cobbled climbs riders, ever. I think of only 2 other riders in the last 10 years who would have been able to match Pog's / MvdPs climbing times at their best: Cancellara (most probably on Kwaremont where he bossed some rides), and 2016 Sagan, but there won't be 5 other riders I can think off.

 

[Keldergoat]

Also quite an interesting interview with his coach at Visma, Mathieu Heijboer. He claims that they deliberately focused on improving his performance after a long race, which showed its first results yesterday where he seemed to improve towards the end of the race, and he expects WvA to be even better in P-R.

Visma verwacht veel van Wout van Aert in Parijs-Roubaix: "Daar komt hij het best tot zijn recht"

Video Wout van Aert eindigde zondag weliswaar net naast het podium van de Ronde van Vlaanderen, maar speelde wel een hoofdrol in de finale. Dit deed hem na afloop zichtbaar deugd. Het is voor de renner van Visma | Lease a Bike bovenal een flinke opsteker richting Parijs-Roubaix. Performance...

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