Rumours of Wout van Aert’s imminent departure from this Tour de France, it turns out, were greatly exaggerated, but that didn’t stop the whispers from gradually amplifying for much of Tuesday as the race resumed after its first rest day.
Van Aert, so the story went, was going to go all-out to win stage 10 as he was leaving the Tour immediately afterwards to attend the birth of his son. Two and two began to add up to five in earnest once Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) repeated the rumour for the benefit of the TV2 cameras before the start in Vulcania.
