Outgunned by three superior rivals, Wout van Aert played a losing hand as best he could at the 2026 Tour of Flanders but after chasing hard for fourth, the Belgian Classics star recognised it was never really going to be possible to clinch a second Classics Monument podium this spring.
Third in Milan-San Remo had given Van Aert's long-suffering fans some room for hope that he could do better on home soil, particularly after some dramatic near-misses at In Flanders Fields and above all in Dwars door Vlaanderen last Wednesday.
Instead, and despite being exactly where he needed to be in the Oude Kwaremont - right on Tadej Pogačar's back wheel as he was ripping the race apart - from then on things only got worse for the Visma-Lease a Bike leader.
Dropped by eventual winner Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and then by runners-up Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) on the false flats that followed the Oude Kwaremont, Van Aert was then forced into a chasing game alongside Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
He dropped the Dane to come home alone in fourth. But with Evenepoel ahead of him and firmly en route to third, there was no way the podium was possible - and his long-established role as the best Belgian cobbled Classics hope had just taken a significant denting, too.
"We could only have come back if they had looked at each other in front, but still then you have to believe in it," Van Aert said afterwards.
"I have to thank Mads for an amazing ride, we worked well together. It wasn't meant to be to come back, but we did what we could and I think it was a crazy final, everybody by themselves to the line."
While second in the delayed Flanders edition of 2020 remains Van Aert's only visit to the podium for another year, then, and he said there had been one moment, on the Molenberg when UAE suddenly put the hammer, when he feared being more out of contention than fighting for fourth.
"I was honestly a bit surprised. I was a bit far back, and I have to thank my teammates to bring me into an OK position just before the Molenberg because it was already a crucial moment," Van Aert told Eurosport.
" Actually, it was a not a bad situation, I had Christophe [Laporte, teammate] with me, but I think there was no reason for us to pull so we could sit on."
"I came to the second ascent of the Kwaremont as I wanted and like I predicted it was just about the legs."
Ever the optimist, Van Aert will now look towards Paris-Roubaix for one last chance at cobbled Classics redemption this spring, but he said that even if he had had slightly higher expectations on home soil, he was still satisfied with how this year's edition of Flanders had played out.
"I'm happy with my performance," he said. "I hoped for a little bit more maybe, but I did everything possible that I could today."
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