Just four days ago, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) sat by a barrier at Dwars door Vlaanderen being consoled by his wife Sarah, full of regret and disappointment after cramping up and losing a three-against-one sprint to Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost). He got his tactics all wrong and ultimately lost his team the bike race.
At today's Tour of Flanders, however, he seemed to return to his former self when he snapped onto eventual winner Tadej Pogačar's (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) wheel as he made the first of many brutal attacks up the Oude Kwaremont with 56km to go. Despite all the subsequent criticism from Dwars and outside noise, Van Aert had looked past his recent failure, and for a while looked as though he might again challenge for the Flanders victory.
