Unfortunately, there was not much excitement in Liévin today, thanks to a dominant performance by Van der Poel, but also, to some extent, due to the poor starting position of Wout van Aert. Despite this, he still managed to finish a strong second after a brilliant race.
Could He Have Won the World Title?
The fourth-row starting position proved to be more challenging than expected. Van Aert found himself with no room to maneuver and, to make matters worse, was pushed towards the barriers. In another scenario, could he have fought for the title? The Belgian seems to believe that it might have been possible.
“I would need to watch the race again, but I felt that I didn’t lose much to Mathieu when I had clear space,” Van Aert shared with Sporza. Of course, he understands that Mathieu only had to protect his lead and wasn’t always pushing to the maximum.
“He knows that once he has a gap, he just needs to maintain it and avoid taking risks. In the chase, you race differently. But you never race with the belief that you can win. If you’re in the race for the win, you can push a bit deeper,” he explained further.
No Surprises
As for his own performance, there’s not much to criticize about Van Aert’s race. Starting from around 40th place, he climbed all the way to second, a position he was able to hold onto with ease. “Was I surprised by that? I know I belong with the best in the field.”
“On Mathieu, it’s hard to make up for such a poor start, but I’m confident that I can still fight my way back against all the others—respectfully, of course. It actually happened faster than I expected,” Van Aert concluded.
