Visma-Lease a Bike misses the Tour again: “We think Wout van Aert would have been on par”

Visma-Lease a Bike had to take a different path after Wout van Aert pulled out. More than 100 kilometers from the finish, he blew the Tour of Flanders dynamite with a shot from Mathieu Jorgenson, among others.

“If you bring the front-runner to the slopes like that, Mathieu van der Poel will take everyone off the wheel. We wanted to race early and create a situation where Mathieu had to drive towards us,” explained Grisha Niermann of the tactical plan.

“It didn't quite work out,” the team leader immediately admitted. “The players tried to follow our plan and Matthew Jorgenson liked it, but he backed down in the end.”

“This can happen to such a young guy. It's amazing how short he was with Matteo after Koppenberg. But he still needs to develop more content to continue something like this.”

“This was one of my hardest days on the bike,” Dwars race winner Door Vlaanderen added.

“I did everything I could to win. I had to let Van der Poel go and I did everything I could to close the gap, but he was smarter and stronger. We fought as a team and I'm proud of that.”

In the castle, Tiesj Benoot almost saved the furniture. “I had really good legs,” he began his story for the day.

“We tried that. We made a really nice move between the Muhlenberg and Perendres teams, but unfortunately Matteo still has too many teammates there.”

But then the Calvary procession of Benoth also began. “The second time at Kwaremont I was too far away. Then I made a mistake and broke the rear wheel fender.”

“I wasn't able to change until just before the Steenbekdris, so I couldn't drive on the small gears all the way to the Köppenberg.”

“Then I'm in contention for the podium, but then I had another puncture after the final pass over the Paterberg… I finished on Tim van Dijk's bike. Bad day.”

“It was like survival for me on the Koppenberg. I thought I could ride to the top. I also overtook a lot of riders who were on foot. But for me, they stopped and I also had to get off the bike.”

Illness, falls, injuries, bad luck: these are terms that I have associated with Visma-Lease a Bike in recent weeks like French fries with mayonnaise.

Nearman: “Since the E3 Saxo Classic, we've been in a period of disappointment. It's very sad.”

Dylan Van Baarle also did not play a significant role. “He's healthy, but he wasn't on time. He's training again, but that's definitely not a guarantee for Sunday in Roubaix.”

“You consider yourself rich and hope for more, but Dylan clearly wasn't good enough. Sometimes he also suffers from the rain and the cold. That was another day.”

Thus, Wot van Aart's loss became greater. “If you want to keep Mateo in check, you need Woot. I think Woot was the only one who could have kept tabs on Mateo.”

“Maybe they would have competed in a sprint or maybe Matteo would have outdone him as well. You don't know, but I definitely think Wout would have been on par.”

Although Nirman couldn't deny the truth. “Once again: the best rider won. We have to be satisfied with that. We did what we wanted and above all what we could.”