After missing an opportunity to fight for victory on the thrilling second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, Wout van Aert could only blame himself and was left frustrated with his own positioning once again.
The uphill finale into San Gimignano was preceded by one section of gravel, where the day would be decided, and the entry onto it came after a tight left-hand corner. With 9.8km to go, Van Aert was perfectly placed towards the front of the peloton, but in the space of 3km, he'd dropped back to around 40th.
By then taking the wider way around the turn to add insult to injury, the race was as good as done for Van Aert, while his long-term rival Mathieu van der Poel had started to flex his muscles at the front and eventually won the stage from Isaac del Toro and Giulio Pellizzari.
"I was very disappointed. I was completely out of position at the most important point of the race. Because of that, I couldn't get a result," said Van Aert to VTM Nieuws at the start of stage 3, admitting that while the form was there – which we did see when he worked to limit Matteo Jorgenson's losses – he could only rue it as a missed opportunity.
"My legs were good, though, because I was able to move up on the gravel and ran into Matteo there. The only thing I could do then was try to limit the damage to the other GC riders. That worked out well, but we would have preferred to have two riders fighting for the stage win.
"Just before that, I lost Matteo's wheel. It got a bit tricky on the descent, and I lost a few places. Then I made a few wrong choices to move up. Before we knew it, we were at that corner, and I was in a lost position."
It would be more concerning if Van Aert's shape wasn't there, as finding the legs to compete in time for the key Classics would be quite the tall order, but it is far from the first time where the Belgian's failure to position has prevented him from showing off his true form.
Riders like Van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar make the vital skill of staying in front look easy, especially the former with his expert bike handling, and Van Aert's cyclo-cross background and illustrious palmarès highlight how he's obviously been one of the best in the positioning business previously.
But with several crashes and long-term injuries hampering him in the past few years, it's understandable that speculation has risen surrounding his commitment to throw himself into corners and risk everything in the fight for front position. It's something even he himself has confirmed had played on his mind at times, with family and his crash history playing a part.
"That was a problem all spring, I think. Not always, but at times. I didn't dare to throw myself in, and I was torn between being happy that I didn't crash, yet frustrated that I wasn't in position," said Van Aert to Het Nieuwsblad back in December. "I found that just riding along didn't make me happy."
Asked if it was simply a question of legs or more of a mental block due to those previous crashes, Van Aert said: "Yes, I think so. Maybe I tried to force it too much, because I already felt it was an issue during the winter. I thought: 'This has to be resolved by the big Classics.'
"I may have made too big a deal of it, because I noticed I was in a good position when I wasn't thinking about it. It was better to let things happen naturally, not force them. The most important step was perhaps acknowledging that I might not be taking the biggest risks anymore and sometimes braking faster, without associating it with anything negative. I no longer enjoy taking unnecessary risks, but that's not a bad thing."
Perhaps this isolated run into one corner at Tirreno-Adriatico can be put down as an "unnecessary risk", but with poor positioning biting Van Aert several times in recent years, perhaps Milan-San Remo will be the real test of whether he's addressed it.
The former winner will be racing the Italian Monument for the first time since 2023, and will know that the fight into the foot of the Cipressa will be vital. If he isn't with the likes of Pogačar, Van der Poel and Filippo Ganna – the trio who moved away last season – at the right moment, another race could disappear up the road.
He will be trying to sprint on Wednesday's stage at Tirreno-Adriatico and the final day, as it's good training for the Classics, but it could only expose more positioning problems if he isn't able to latch onto the right wheels in the finale.
"There will be better opportunities in the coming days. And I have to be realistic. I'm not going to beat guys like Philipsen on a finish like this," he said. "It'll be a long day. But that's okay. The Classics are coming. Extra hours in the saddle, that's what we're here for."
