Wout van Aert

[markene2]

good genetics, pluss hub motor and a high level program. just like pogacar

 

[roundabout]

it's super impressive how for a second time in 4 months the same team can destroy the rest on a pimple of climb

 

[Ripper]

Bumping this back to the front page. The most ridiculous rider on the circuit. After winning a mountain stage, a time trial and the sprinters world champs at last years TdF, this year WVA is having a crack at winning every single stage.

He's up there, but most likely 2nd or 3rd

 

[markene2]

He's up there, but most likely 2nd or 3rd

He wont be allowed to fight for GC by the "powers that be" just like Pog started faking a bit of a bad days at the end of the tour last year to show he is human. Wout will get "dropped" and be out of GC contention.

The days of a traditionally worthless mountain rider i.e larger stocky rider like Thomas or Wiggins winning the tour is over. ESPECIALLY when he is already winning sprints and every other stage. To much speculation and bad press. So no i dont see it happening. I honestly believe he could easily win the tour if he was allowed to.

 

[pastronef]

he's havier than Indurain. maybe he could win a GT if he planned his season around it. he hasn't got the speed the climbers go on big mountains

 

[SafeBet]

it's super impressive how for a second time in 4 months the same team can destroy the rest on a pimple of climb

That was truly something. Ineos of all teams was destroyed despite having a lot of riders in perfect position at the bottom.

I do wonder how people can claim Bahrain is super ridiculous and then watch this without raising an eyebrow.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

That was truly something. Ineos of all teams was destroyed despite having a lot of riders in perfect position at the bottom.

I do wonder how people can claim Bahrain is super ridiculous and then watch this without raising an eyebrow.

Bahrain are a poor man's Jumbo. Everyone who goes to Jumbo hits their best level, the only exception is Dunoulin.

Vingegaard did nothing in 2019 and 2020 and in 2021 is suddenly doing 3 weeks flying with no fatigue.

Laport is now a French VannderPoel

WVA lol.

George Bennett became a race winner.

Kruijsvijk almost win a grand tour

Benoot, Teunissen, Van hoojdonck all flying
The problem is a lot of the time their poor tactics and disorganisation compared to teams like Ineos and Quickstep cost them races. But the program they have absolutely works

 

[Devil's Elbow]

it's super impressive how for a second time in 4 months the same team can destroy the rest on a pimple of climb

To be fair, every team bar Jumbo and Ineos were either out of position or looking after a sprinter at the bottom of the climb (for as far as we could see given that the camera was following Perez) which explains a lot of the gaps - everyone else started the climb at a lower speed and couldn't go full gas all the way.

Doesn't mean this wasn't a ridiculous showing, because it very much was, but it helps if you can sprint into a hill with a bunch of non-climbers on your wheel.

Also don't agree that Ineos got destroyed - their GC riders were fairly evenly matched with Jumbo's and the best of the Flanders types (which is Van Aerts 'natural' specialism) dropping the best of the climbers on such a short hill when going all out is to be expected. Prime Sagan drops prime Froome here too.

 

[samhocking]

Thomas said once riders behind caught up to them, the impetus to chase Wout ended as the GC fight was all together. As we saw Jumbo then blocked the chase with two riders as they often do to give Wout more chance by disrupting any collective effort. Wout is on fire though, the knees clearly very robust again.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Thomas said once riders behind caught up to them, the impetus to chase Wout ended as the GC fight was all together. As we saw Jumbo then blocked the chase with two riders as they often do to give Wout more chance by disrupting any collective effort. Wout is on fire though, the knees clearly very robust again.

The absurd thing is not wout staying away, it's that he got away by dropping the strongest riders in the wolrd on not his best terrain

 

[Ripper]

The absurd thing is not wout staying away, it's that he got away by dropping the strongest riders in the wolrd on not his best terrain

On a short hill like that, whose terrain do you think it was best suited for? Then for that small group of riders, what was their focus/job at that juncture in the race? This was not that surprising of a tactic actually.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The absurd thing is not wout staying away, it's that he got away by dropping the strongest riders in the wolrd on not his best terrain

How is this not his best terrain? This hill was close to as good as a hill gets for him, right down to the 90-degree turn slowing everyone down at the start. Only thing missing was it being cobbled.

 

[scapewalker]

On a short hill like that, whose terrain do you think it was best suited for? Then for that small group of riders, what was their focus/job at that juncture in the race? This was not that surprising of a tactic actually.

Hills like that would be peak Allaphilipe terrain but even he would have had a hard time following todays nuclear attack.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

On a short hill like that, whose terrain do you think it was best suited for? Then for that small group of riders, what was their focus/job at that juncture in the race? This was not that surprising of a tactic actually.

How is this not his best terrain? This hill was close to as good as a hill gets for him, right down to the 90-degree turn slowing everyone down at the start. Only thing missing was it being cobbled.

His best terrain is a muddy field

 

[samhocking]

I'd say todays last blip of a hill and finish was about as perfect as you could get for Wout. Wout just seems able to deal with the lactic better than anyone else at the moment after anaerobic efforts like that. Looks like he's hitting 800w for 1km which is only just shy of Olympic standard 1km TT track riders I'd say.

 

[BR2]

It was a very good place for him to drop the others, with Ala missing and Mathieu either not positioned well or not caring about this stage. Nonetheless the whole Jumbo Team is ridiculous and van Aert is one of the cherries on top.

 

[memyselfandI]

The absurd thing is not wout staying away, it's that he got away by dropping the strongest riders in the wolrd on not his best terrain

He's around 1st to 3rd best cx athlete of the last good - 10 maybe - years in this planet and in that sport 30s to 3min all out is the bread and butter. Also because of this it was the very best terrain for him today.

 

[memyselfandI]

Hills like that would be peak Allaphilipe terrain but even he would have had a hard time following todays nuclear attack.

Well actually just Alaphilippe came to my mind to take a day in this type of finish. There was this splendid finale in Tour, but when...? Anyways few years go that had screaming fast corners after that punching short climb where he took off like a bullet.

 

[Bonimenier]

Strade Bianche that VdP won.

Finishing 4th in your first race of the season can hardly be considered a bad day though.

 

[zlev11]

i dunno, today made sense. he did the same thing on the Bosberg at Omloop but without the leadout and against real classics riders, not GC climbers. he had a bunch of help from all the motorcycles and cars in front of him on the run to the line too. if there was ever a stage that suited him to do what he did, it was todays stage.

 

[kingjr]

Finishing 4th in your first race of the season can hardly be considered a bad day though.

Yeah, it's very much a relative use of the term. Given the way he won it the year before, (then also his 1st race post-Corona) I think it can be applied here.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Credit to him for the tribute to the recently-freed Gonzalo Najar in his celebration.

 

[Cookster15]

WVA was wowing us in the 2020 TdF - dropping Bernal on Grand Colombier, then last year his ride on Ventoux. If we see him do similar in the high mountains this year I will take notice. But today's terrain suited an in form WVA.

 

[roundabout]

To be fair, every team bar Jumbo and Ineos were either out of position or looking after a sprinter at the bottom of the climb (for as far as we could see given that the camera was following Perez) which explains a lot of the gaps - everyone else started the climb at a lower speed and couldn't go full gas all the way.

Doesn't mean this wasn't a ridiculous showing, because it very much was, but it helps if you can sprint into a hill with a bunch of non-climbers on your wheel.

Also don't agree that Ineos got destroyed - their GC riders were fairly evenly matched with Jumbo's and the best of the Flanders types (which is Van Aerts 'natural' specialism) dropping the best of the climbers on such a short hill when going all out is to be expected. Prime Sagan drops prime Froome here too.

It's just that Van Hooydonck and Benoot were doing over 30 km/h for their turns and there were gaps after less than 500 meters of the climb.

Or in other words, despite a significant draft advantage of over 10%, 1 minute of such riding was enough to shatter the field.

In the Tour. On day 4. After 1 rest day.

 

[Savant12]

Looking [not] forward to seeing WVA winning again today, then dropping GC riders/climbers on multiple mountain stages without accumulating enough fatigue, and topping it off with a win in Paris.