What are you talking about. We are looking for explanations. As should he and the team considering he wants to be a GC rider and win GT's. If there is no explanation, then you can basically forget about being a GC rider for GT's because then it means you can't control it and it can happen anytime. Looking back at his short career so far, he ran like clockwork before his crash. The only bad days he had were in the 2019 ToR where he had crashed several times and it was cold and wet. But for four years he rarely had an offday. Now he still manages the same highs, but he has far more lows to go along with them. For an aspiring GT contender, we should hope for something that explains it other than ''didn't have the legs''.
In case he has covid, then today's result does not have to dampen his future ambitions.
It's possible that race conditions have an impact on when exactly you can't keep up anymore in case your weight is suboptimal. Van Aert can follow many climbers for a few days, but finally he will get dropped. Being too heavy doesn't necessarily mean you will get dropped on every climb on every day. But it will likely happen eventually, and the more you weigh the higher the probability. Your body has to be able to keep providing the energy to push those watts. I think it will be less evident for a small guy to keep pushing big watts to compensate for his suboptimal weight even if he has the power to do so, you also have to be able to keep it up and have the energy for it.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkEpbAZi46o